A Volvo car for every task

Every day, emergency and service personnel dedicate themselves to making society a better place – and the cars they drive stand as symbols of their courage and commitment, inspiring admiration and gratitude whenever they arrive at a scene.

Today, Volvo cars are trusted by a wide range of professionals who require safe and reliable cars for their daily operations – including medical teams, fire departments, airport authorities, customs officials, coast guards, military police, government agencies, construction companies and veterinary professionals.

It all started back in 1929, when we delivered the first customised Volvo police car to the Swedish police. Since then, we’ve continued to support police forces across the globe. And over the years, we’ve also broadened our focus to meet the unique needs of other emergency and service personnel.

“For many of our customers, it’s important to arrive at an emergency scene with a strong and confident presence,” says Ulf Rydne, Product Manager Special Vehicles at Volvo Cars. “Paired with performance and safety standards, this is why Volvo cars are such a compelling choice for them.”

The Volvo XC60 is not only the best-selling Volvo of all time, but it’s also the most popular Volvo model among our customers in the emergency and service business. It’s especially appreciated for its versatility and ample space, and the higher seating position provides a good overview of what’s going on around you.

Built to meet every need
But what exactly is it that makes an emergency car special? Well, the needs of the users of course are very different, but one thing they have in common is that they need a reliable and safe car that can carry the extra weight of specialised equipment. So, the car must be built to handle every situation just as well as a normal car, despite the extra load.

This is where our reinforced chassis – originally used in our police cars – truly proves its value. Combined with an efficient engine and all-wheel drive, this robust chassis is specifically engineered to deliver neutral and predictable handling in any situation, even when the car is heavily loaded.

The police chassis is available for all-wheel drive versions of several Volvo models, including the XC90, XC60, V60 and EX40. In addition to the chassis, emergency cars are also equipped with certain other installations typically found in police cars, such as specialised wiring and lighting systems.

In most cases, non-emergency service cars don’t require this specialised chassis, as they typically aren’t intended to carry additional weight.

Some of the cars we build and customise directly at our factory, while others are produced as base models and then adapted and finalised by local rebuilders. This approach offers the flexibility to tailor and equip each car precisely to our customers’ specifications, enabling us to support a wide range of sectors across society with top-class cars.

Electrification on the rise
One emerging trend is to use compact fully electric cars – such as the Volvo EX30 – as guidance service cars at airports. Compact, reliable, fast, and easy to drive, the EX30 is the ideal companion for tasks that don’t involve emergency situations and are carried out within a limited area.

For emergency purposes, plug-in hybrids or petrol-powered cars are often a more popular choice than fully electric models. This is because the driving distance isn’t always known in advance, and having the extra range can be crucial.

However, many emergency and service providers are exploring what it would take to electrify their fleets. As electrification technology advances and fully electric cars achieve longer ranges on a single charge, they have the potential to play an increasingly important role in this sector as well.

Each year, we deliver around 2,000 emergency and service cars to countries across Europe, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. While our focus today is on the European market, we’ve also had a presence in other regions historically, such as China and the USA.

“As a trusted brand with safety embedded in our DNA, we are very proud to have our cars serve as emergency and service cars on the streets around the world,” says Ulf Rydne. “This is perfectly in line with our core values and what we want to be.”