December 23, 2025
Kerning vs. turning
Volvo Centum is Dalton Maag's new typeface for Volvo
New Volvo font rolls out; drivers beg for buttons over buzz
TLDR: Volvo is launching a custom ‘Volvo Centum’ font, built by Dalton Maag, to make on‑screen controls easier to read and will roll it to XC60/EX60 and beyond via updates. Commenters are split: some want bug fixes and buttons, others worry about privacy, while a few ask for open licensing.
Volvo’s latest celebration ahead of its 2027 centennial isn’t a car—it’s a font. Meet “Volvo Centum,” a new typeface by London studio Dalton Maag, destined for dashboards starting with the refreshed XC60 and its all‑new electric sibling, EX60, then pushed to millions of cars via over‑the‑air updates. It promises calmer, safer, easier-to-read screens in “glance-driven” driving and works across 35 languages. Sounds wholesome… until the comments lit up.
The mood? Cynical, funny, and very split. One owner dropped a sarcastic bomb about Volvo “focusing on fonts” while their app and charging schedule still glitch (hello, daylight saving time!). Another camp says safety isn’t a font—it’s buttons: “remove that massive tablet” is the rallying cry. Privacy hawks chimed in too, spooked by a dash greeting that reads “Hello, Liam.” As one put it: they bought a simpler Honda because they don’t want a car that knows their name.
On the other side, a few pragmatic voices asked why a carmaker needs its own typeface at all—branding? control? savings?—and noted that Centum doesn’t look wildly different from existing fonts. A hopeful thread wondered if Volvo might open-license the font, echoing the brand’s seat belt legacy. Meanwhile, the big unknown: how this plays with Volvo’s Google-powered system (Android Auto) from 2017. In short: fonts vs. fixes, buttons vs. touchscreens, safety vs. “stop the surveillance car”—and somehow, a typeface became the main character.
Key Points
- •Volvo will introduce a new brand typeface, Volvo Centum, in 2026 to enhance in-car readability and safety.
- •Dalton Maag designed the sans serif typeface for glance-driven environments, with distinct character shapes, spacing, and scaling for legibility.
- •The typeface debuts on the revised XC60 and new EX60, with over-the-air updates planned to roll it out across millions of vehicles.
- •Volvo Centum supports 35 languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean, and is optimized for varied driving conditions and platforms.
- •Volvo previously adopted Google’s Android and helped develop Android Auto; alignment of these systems with the new typeface is yet to be detailed.