Volvo

To launch their new XC90 T8 hybrid, Volvo didn’t create an ad. They invented a technology to re-think the way cars are powered. Grey advertising agency pushed the boundaries on this exciting concept.

The XC90 T8 is one of the most powerful Volvos ever built, partly due to the fact that it’s designed to be smart about the way it uses power. So the creative team felt that an exciting way to demonstrate this was to power the XC90 T8 in a smarter and edgier way: by stealing energy from other cars. In other words, the Volvo XC90 T8 would commit “Highway Robbery.”

A peristaltic system was developed to capture energy from cars using only hydraulic power. It’s main component is a mat that contains tubes that are full of water. When a car drives over the mat, it compresses the tubes and its forward momentum pushes the water through, generating hydraulic power. 

The hydraulic power is then turned into electricity. After over 4 months developing the technology, we hijacked a highway in California and used the system to steal energy from other cars to power the new Volvo hybrid SUV. A special billboard thanked all the other car brands for their power.