Two things about the Volvo EX60...

Do you ever have that feeling that something is not quite right. That feeling that something could be missing that should be there, but you're not really sure about it. It's like the patty on a McDonalds burger. You know it should be there, but you can't taste it. Is it really there?

That's totally not the vibe I got when I got into the Volvo EX60 at the launch in Stockholm last week. I knew exactly what was missing and what felt off. However, the strange thing is that for the first time ever, I'm having trouble getting over it.
Before we go on, I'd like to clarify that I like the EX60. Having seen and touched it (it looks good and feels nice), I'd like mine in Forest Lake green combined with the wool interior, thank you.

For now, it's the only fully electric Volvo that I'd be confident about having as a daily car and -more importantly - as a car in which I would be able to make our twice yearly trips to Sweden. It's really technically impressive, which in turn makes it also very usable.

Onto the quirks of which I found at least two. Both are in the interior of the car and both can be reached from the front seats. And both have something to do with the often mentioned 'Scandinavian Minimalism' going on in the car. Which I feel is a misplaced term, since I think Scandinavian Minimalism is more about practicality than leaving stuff out to just make it look better.

That leads me to the two irks. The first is the very awkwardly placed buttons under the main screen in the center console. A volume wheel and two arrow buttons with a lot, and I mean too much, space around them. It just looks like it was an afterthought. Why not have two little knobs with temperature controls as well to fill out the space and make it feel useful and make it look better. This is just misplaced minimalism, nothing to do with 'Scandinavian'. It's also still unsafe, because the most used feature's, of which temperature control is at least one of them, still remains an on screen feature, which requires attention and a bit more hand-eye-coordination to get to. Not very Volvo-y.

The second thing I can't get over is the center arm rest with the retractable, plastic cupholders and cover thingy. This is very useful, but also very gimmicky. Which makes it fine in a small car like the EX30, but in a large premium SUV, which costs about twice as much? Not so much. It's a space saving feature for a space that needs no saving. Or at least, it does need saving from that stupid thing. There are way more elegant solutions for cup holders in that area. Or dare I say it: more premium solutions that would fit a car in its price range a bit better.

I know it's probably only me that is struggling with these design choices. I know I'm weird like that. Please keep pointing that out to me, if you haven't already (you know who you are). But both things just don't make sense in the overal look and feel of the car. Everything just seems so well thought out. Even the little storage spaces under the floor in the back, or the seat risers for the little ones you'd rather not transport in your brand new car. And even the very beautiful and quite useable door panels with their unique lighting that makes it feel like the EX60 is more special than it actually is. At least until your retina's start hurting again from looking at that hideous button placement in the middle of the car.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it again and again: buttons matter more than people think they do. Not only do they form a chance to add some nice design elements in a car (beautifully designed wheels, knobs and pushy-things are elements we like to look at and obsess over, especially if they're handmade from premium materials), they also communicate the perceived quality of a car. Having shitty, bendy plastic buttons in a Bentley would definitely make you doubt if the car is as premium as

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it again and again: buttons matter more than people think they do. Not only do they form a chance to add some nice design elements in a car (beautifully designed wheels, knobs and pushy-things are elements we like to look at and obsess over, especially if they're handmade from premium materials), they also communicate the perceived quality of a car. Having shitty, bendy plastic buttons in a Bentley would definitely make you doubt if the car is as premium as you've been told it is. Having a beautifully sculpted and weighty metal volume wheel in something like a Volkswagen Polo makes you think the Germans have made it with more pride than they're letting on.

That's why I'm having a hard time letting go of these two things in the new Volvo. It's just so unfitting for a brand that is known to nitpick over the details. But that's just me, isn't it? Goddamnit, it's me. Again...

In other news:

Finally Elon Musk made a good choice. Only to follow it up with a stupid one. After too many years he gave the Model S and X the axe. The axe was wielded by Optimus. The humanoid robot that will be taking all of our jobs once it won't need a human pilot to operate it from another room. Musk thought it would be a good idea to stop building big SUV's that nobody buys to make space for the production line of the humanoid robot, that probably nobody (outside Silicon Valley) will buy.

Might the Porsche 911 finally be dead? Or maybe just the design of the flat beetle? I know, it's a cliché to call the iconic car that, but I just don't like the look of the damned things. At all. So I feel like it's good news that Tobias Sühlmann, Head of Design at McLaren is making the switch from the British Island to mainland Germany to draw up some Porsches. And that could really mean the much speculated about death of the 911. Don't take my word for it. Porsche is practically hinting at it themselves in the PR message: "With this change, Porsche is undergoing a generational change." That might also mean that Sühlmann is from a different generation than his predecessor, quite literally...