A Soul of Clay

Think of a modern car. What do you see? Perhaps advanced sensors, razor-sharp screens, adaptive seatbelts, ultra-fast charging or refined panoramic roofs. You probably don’t think of clay. Yet an everyday material like clay and the skill to shape it, plays a vital role in the cars of the future.

Although clay models have been used in the car industry for nearly 100 years, few people know the technique. It’s a secretive craft. The beautiful clay cars carefully sculpted at Volvo Cars are rarely shown in public. Instead, they serve as a tool for designers to refine their ideas and for leadership to understand what they are deciding on.

Volvo Cars’ clay studio sits inside a large design building in Gothenburg. It’s part of the Physical Modelling department, a team of about 40 people, including 12 clay modellers. Here they work under the highest level of confidentiality. The clay cars being shaped today are likely to reach customers in four to five years’ time, so they’re tucked away behind sliding walls.

“We make everything on the car from scratch. Every little button, vent or armrest must be created somehow. It’s a craft that brings many different skills together,” says Jonas Almgren, Head of Physical Modelling at Volvo Cars, as he shows us around.

There’s a room where upholsterers develop seats and interior trims. A decoration workshop where the right wood species are chosen or shavings are ground into new patterns. A paint shop where colours are mixed and clay models are sprayed. There’s an electronics area for lighting, large milling machines that cut both whole cars and tiny details, laser engraving, 3D printers, design engineers and programmers. Everything works together to create the most realistic clay car possible.

“The advantage of physical clay models is how fast and clear they are,” says Jonas Almgren. “In just a few hours you see exactly how the car changes. You can add or remove clay on the spot. Then you roll the car outside, assess it in the real world and from every angle.”

The process starts with a sketch from the designer, a simple digital base describing the car’s exterior surfaces. From there, the clay studio and the designer work closely to realise the ideas, manufacture parts and optimise the vision step by step. First through several small-scale models, later as a full-scale clay car. The core is milled from polystyrene foam and covered with about 20–30 millimetres of clay.

“Each year we do around 50 major millings and use 50–90 tonnes of clay. Today the work blends classic craftsmanship with modern technology. We have excellent scanners that mirror everything we do in clay into the digital world. So, the clay has become more of a complement to the digital. But it’s the clay that gives the design its soul,” says Jonas.

We’re shown into a large, light hall with a full-scale model of a Volvo EX90 in the centre. Half the car is coated in reddish-brown clay from the brand Marsclay. The other half is wrapped in Di-Noc, a film that closely imitates real paint. Nearby stands a clay model of the car’s interior with astonishing detail, down to the smallest volume knob.

The clay studio is divided into two sections: one for exterior models and one for interiors. Tom Joyce is a senior clay modeller responsible for exteriors. He grew up in Coventry, England, and started as a wood modeller at Triumph back in 1973. In the 1990s he switched to clay and, after several years at BMW, Audi and Renault, he joined Volvo Cars.

“I love working creatively with my hands. Designing a new car is a tactile craft, and after so many years I can feel with my fingers whether a form works or not. The genius of a physical clay car is that you can’t hide anything. Everything is revealed,” Tom says.

Exterior models use a softer clay warmed to 60–65°C to get the right consistency. Then it’s all about applying it, spreading it, filing back, sanding again, polishing, adjusting angles, surfaces, lines and forms, a loop that can run for two years. When the clay car is finished, all data is sent digitally to the engineering department. Clay that’s milled away is recycled or donated to schools.

“A lot can change along the way - new regulations, new ideas, new decisions. Roof height is probably what we adjust most often. But anything can change, and sometimes you start again from scratch. It’s demanding but incredibly satisfying when everything clicks.”

Tom rolls out a cabinet full of tools: scrapers, skimmers, rasps and hoggers for removing or working the clay. Plus, special tools he has made himself from spoons, cheese knives or zesters to get exactly what he wants.

“The first weeks with a new model are the most enjoyable, when the picture isn’t fixed and you go by feel. You’re free to improvise. But I also love the collaboration with Volvo’s designers — the most skilled I’ve worked with,” says Tom Joyce.

Albin Larsson is a senior clay modeller for interiors. It’s meticulous precision work where every millimetre matters. He uses a slightly harder clay softened with a heat gun as it’s applied, before sculpting the details by hand. He then lays “paint skins” over the surface - material cast from silicone mats with different textures - and finally presses 3D-printed components into the clay.

“I like the instrument panel most, because it has so many details. To get everything right we work closely with safety experts and ergonomists. How does it feel when you sit down? Can you see everything in the car? Is anything blocking your view? You can’t do that digitally.”

Just like Tom, Albin works with a generous spread of skimmers and scrapers, but his most-used tool is something else entirely - ordinary tape.

“Tape, eyes and hands are the most important in my job. With tape you can achieve perfectly exact lines when you need to move a surface by a millimetre inside the car. It works a bit like a ruler.”

Albin studied, like most Swedish clay modellers, at Formakademin at Rörstrand in Lidköping. It’s a two-year programme where you can specialise in architecture, porcelain, culture or vehicles. Guided by his interest in cars, Albin worked at both Škoda and Volkswagen before landing his dream job at Volvo Cars.

“It’s the craft itself that drives me. I’m a perfectionist. But being part of creating a good product is, of course, fantastic too. You start with a small lump of clay and end up with a cutting-edge car shipped all over the world. That’s exciting,” says Albin Larsson.

Most major car companies now have their own clay studios. But Volvo Cars was early to adopt the technique — starting with design chief Jan Wilsgaard’s first success, Amazon, in 1956. In recent years Gothenburg has become something of a hub for clay modelling, both in Sweden and globally. Jonas Almgren hopes and believes that will continue.

“As long as we buy a car with our hearts, clay models will be in demand. That’s how human beings are. Digital tools keep getting better, but I still don’t think they can fully replace a clay model. In the end, a car is a physical product.”