LONG-DISTANCE TRAVELLERS with a penchant for design, safety and comfort are firmly in focus behind the launch of Volvo Bus’s stunning all-new coach platform: the 9900 range, announced recently in Europe.
The model range update with “innovative design and high comfort” will persuade more people to travel by coach, even on long-distance trips, the company states.
“This is a historic step, the biggest renewal of our European coach range for more than 20 years. I’m convinced that our customers and their passengers will appreciate the result,” said Håkan Agnevall, president of Volvo Buses.
According to the company, the new Volvo Buses’ range of vehicles for tourist and line-haul operations includes two models – the “luxurious” Volvo 9900 and the “versatile” Volvo 9700. Both feature a dynamically styled exterior with crisp lines and smooth sides, taking aerodynamics “to a new level,” it’s stated.
On the Volvo 9900, the new and unique “Z shaped” window lines combined with gradient “theatre floor” seating introduces a whole new design language for coaches, says Volvo – and with its muscularly well-defined ‘forehead’ it’s certainly mixing things up a bit, in terms of design.
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Inside the coach, Volvo says the design team put considerable importance into both visual and tactile quality. Passengers are said to be greeted with a “calm and balanced light palette” as well as “tasteful combinations of textile and leather, set off by accent details in metal”. In layman’s terms, it sounds like a pretty flash mobile gaff.
To guarantee passengers a high-class “holistic” experience, Volvo Buses has also invested heavily in comfort-enhancing solutions, such as ergonomic passenger seats and a well-insulated interior with a low noise level, it’s claimed. The climate unit is developed to provide a steady, pleasant temperature throughout the bus irrespective of outside conditions.
The Volvo 9900 also offers an extra-high floor and large glass windows to provide excellent views to the front and sides, the company says, while the interior roof is eight centimetres higher than previously – and the straighter transition between walls and roof creates an airier feel with significantly greater space, it’s believed.
Both the Volvo 9700 and the Volvo 9900 feature comprehensive solutions for active and passive safety. Among the new features are more robust frontal impact protection (FIP) and a Driver Alert system that monitors the bus’s movements and issues alerts if the driver is tired or not concentrating on the road.