What's the news?

Volvo gave us a teasing look at this car back in mid-December - and now we get full images of the stunning Concept XC Coupé, the second of three concept vehicles from the Swedes that preview the design direction of the company in years to come.

Exterior

It's basically all about the exterior of the car. The front and rear ends are what you really need to pay attention to, as they most clearly demonstrate the corporate look that all future Volvos will have. Like its beautiful sibling, the Concept Coupé, the XC version has the same T-shaped Daytime Running Lights (DRLs). The mean, hook-like rear light clusters are also promised to be a prominent element of Volvo's overall design.

It's a two-door, four-seat vehicle and it differs from the Concept Coupé by dint of possessing 21-inch wheels, wider wheelarches and of course the higher, shooting brake-esque roofline of an SUV. Volvo was after a clean but robust look, which we think it has achieved.

The extended distance between the base of the windscreen and the front axle is also something to pay attention to - yep, you guessed it, another feature of Volvos yet to come. That's a direct result of the company's Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). Allow Thomas Ingenlath, Volvo's senior vice-president of design, to explain: "Concept XC Coupé shows how clever engineering makes it possible for us to reinforce our world-leading safety without compromising design, size or weight. Thanks to the extensive use of high-strength boron steel and structures with new, ingenious decoupling, we can make SPA cars more compact and safer at the same time."

The designers weren't allowed to be completely outré, however, and SUV traits such as side mouldings and skid plates are present and correct, albeit integrated in the surrounding body areas. Added functionality comes from matte rubber mouldings covering the rear of the XC Coupé, inspired by Swedish company POC, which develops high-tech protective gear for 'gravity sports athletes'. Hence the lurid orange details and exterior graphics, which you can see most prominently at the lowest areas of the front and rear.

Anything else?

There's no word yet on whether Volvo will actually put an evolution of this on sale to rival the likes of the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, but we sincerely hope the company sees sense and green-lights production of something quite similar. Volvo has been making XC-branded cars since the V70 Cross Country of 1997 and SUVs of all sizes are selling like the proverbial warm buns across the globe right now. If any production version were to hit the showrooms looking even half as good as this, it would be a very appealing product in what is currently a reasonably staid marketplace.

We'll see the XC concept in the metal at the Detroit Auto Show next week.