Seattle drivers love their Volvos — perhaps especially so when the cars are clean and full of gas. Now the city is joining the Swedish automaker’s “expanding digital ecosystem” so that cars owners have convenient access to re-fueling and washing services.
The Volvo Concierge app is intended to make life “less complicated” for a class of people who can afford a $60,000 SUV.
Ordered services such as topping off the tank or having the car cleaned are performed at a driver’s work or home or wherever else it might be convenient thanks to Volvo’s strategic partnerships with companies such as Filld and STRATIM.
A news release informs us that services can be completed while Volvo owners are working, sleeping or “even traveling abroad” — otherwise referred to as the period when the rest of us are gassing and washing our own cars.
“First San Francisco, now Seattle, and soon many more Volvo owners will have access to concierge services via an app,” Anders Gustafsson, president and CEO of Volvo Car USA, said in a statement. “This is another example of how we are using connected car technologies to make life less complicated for our customers.”
Volvo says it’s the only automaker integrating connected technologies between the cloud, the car and a user’s smartphone. The pact with Filld is exclusive to Seattle Volvo owners for a limited time, as that mobile fueling service is planning to roll out its offering to owners of other vehicles.
The app allows users to subscribe and pay a flat monthly fee to have the car fueled and washed as a weekly routine or as needed, without service fees. A date, time and place can be set up in the app or a need-based function can be established, such as “fill my tank whenever I fall below 30 percent.”
Elsewhere in Seattle’s car/convenience ecosystem, Booster Fuels, a company which started in Seattle in 2015 before relocating to Silicon Valley, courted large employers as customers on its way to raising $32 million in funding.
Wrench, another startup operating in the Seattle area, brings a mechanic to the customer to perform on-the-spot repairs and maintenance.
