Volvo Will Go to the LA Auto Show, But Won't Show Any Autos

Following up on their somewhat mystifying teaser posts, Volvo has made the even more mystifying decision not to show any cars at its stand at the LA Auto Show.

Instead, it will show off a sculpture that accurately claims not to be a car. The point, says Volvo, isn’t just that they’ve forgotten to build a concept car. Rather, they’ll be talking about the future of the automotive industry as a whole—which… isn’t that what concept cars are for?

“Our industry is changing. Rather than just building and selling cars, we will really provide our customers with the freedom to move in a personal, sustainable and safe way,” said Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars. “We offer our customers access to a car, including new attractive services whenever and wherever they want it.”

But it won’t all be surrealist art, there will also be some Swedish Futurism. Along with the “This is not a car” sculpture, Volvo will have some demonstrations of the services it thinks cars will be able to offer in the near future.

Visitors will be treated to interactive demonstrations of connectivity services, in-car delivers, car sharing, and more.

By doing so, Volvo is showing off the advantages it has gained by partnering with companies like Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Luminar and Zenuity.

“By calling the [auto] show Automobility LA, the organizers have recognized the disruption affecting our industry,” said Mårten Levenstam, responsible for product strategy at Volvo Cars. “We want to demonstrate that we got the memo and start a conversation about the future of automobility. So instead of bringing a concept car, we talk about the concept of a car. We will not win the ‘car of the show’ award this year, but we are comfortable with that. Because this is not a car show.”

Volvo will also be showing off the autonomous experience available in its 360c concept, though it won’t be showing off the car—because that is a car.

You can see it all when the LA Auto Show opens its doors to the public on November 30 and if you can’t wait until then, we’ll be covering the show from the floor next week.