Volvo has always emphasized safety first, including being among the first car manufacturers worldwide to offer three-point seat belts and airbags as standard features. Therefore, it’s not a big surprise to find out the Swedish car maker is leading the way with a new safer, baby seat design.
The firm noted its new initiative to develop the Excellence Child Seat in a press release on July 2nd. In its statement, the company pointed to the launch of the XC90 Excellence and the Lounge Console Concept recently unveiled at an event in Shanghai as the inspiration for the Excellence Child Seat concept.
Statement from Volvo Chief Designer Interiors
Tisha Johnson, Chief Designer Interiors at Volvo Cars Concept and Monitoring Centre, explains the benefits of the new Excellence Child Seat. “We started by asking ourselves if we could make life easier for parents and safer for their children when it comes to the child seat experience. We focused on three key benefits – making it easier to get the child into and out of the child seat from an ergonomic and comfort perspective, providing the child with a safe rearward facing seating position that enables it to keep eye-contact with either the driver or the rear passenger and of course including enough storage for those vital child accessories, such as diapers, bottles, wipes, and so on.”
More on Volvo’s Excellence Child Seat concept
The Excellence Child Seat concept basically involves taking out the front passenger seat of an XC90 SUV and replacing it with a movable pedestal cum baby seat. Benefits to the arrangement include parents being able to put the child in the seat and then easily swivel it around so it faces the rear of the car, which experts note is the preferred seat position for children under age four given the large size of their head in relation to their body.
The new seat configuration allows a child to maintain eye contact with either the driver or someone sitting in the backseat. Of note, there is storage space for diapers and other baby necessities below the child seat, and bottles of milk or formula can even be warmed in heated cup holders.
