Volvo Cars has engaged Swedish glassworks Orrefors to create a floating centre stack in crystal for the company’s next concept car, which will be a first taste of the next-generation Volvo S60. It will be shown for the first time at the Detroit international motor show in January 2009.

In the concept car the crystal-clear centre stack forms a wave from the instrument panel all the way to the rear seat backrest.

“It almost looks like a waterfall from the instrument panel, flowing through the centre of the car,” says Volvo Cars design director Steve Mattin.

“If you want to explore the full scope of Scandinavian design, Sweden’s glassworks are a natural source of inspiration. Large glass areas are also very much part of modern Swedish architecture, creating the special, light transparency,” says Steve Mattin.

The experts at Orrefors were keen to accept the challenge and the result is one of the most unusual and handcraft-intensive objects in the company’s 110-year history. Producing the stack was in itself a challenge beyond the ordinary – even for experts at Orrefors.

“The full-size crystal piece in the concept car will not be a production feature. However, it does open up opportunities to use crystal on a smaller scale in the future. We’ll have to see how our customers respond,” says Steve Mattin.

Beside the driver’s seat, the crystal console cuts straight through the instrument panel and its upper section forms a navigation screen at the precise height of the driver’s combined instruments.

The gear selector has a versatile new shape. In the horizontal position it offers drive in automatic mode. If the driver is in the mood for sporty manual gear changes, the lever can be flipped up into the vertical position. Beside the gear selector there is also the starter button and parking brake.

“We’ve put the focus on ergonomics and safety. With the combined instruments at the same height as the navigation screen, all it takes is a horizontal eye movement to switch between sources of information. Another example is the controls used when you start and stop driving are a few centimetres from each other near the gear selector,” explains Steve Mattin.