Volvo EVA initiative: Equal Vehicles for All - What it is and what Volvo Cars India is doing to boost awareness on gender equality

Volvo Cars India recently flagged off an all women drive in New Delhi under the global ‘Equal Vehicles for All’ (E.V.A.) initiative to promote gender equality. So what is the EVA? Basically, the E.V.A. initiative centres around safety for all and not just safety developed by testing the traditional ‘Male Crash Test Dummies’, as per Volvo.

"Women have a different anatomy and hence different effects in crashes. Our cars are tested with Female Crash Test Dummies as well delivering safety for all. The seats are ergonomically designed with WHIPS to reduce the whiplash risk for male and females by half. The Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) relies on an intelligent structure to boost overall safety. In fact, SIPS, together with the side-impact airbag, reduces severe chest injuries by more than 50% for all passengers," Volvo India said in a statement."

EVA Initiative: "In today’s cars, not everyone is equally protected. Partly because male crash test dummies are the standard. But at Volvo Cars, we have collected crash data for more than 40 years to protect all people — regardless of size, gender, or body shape. To improve gender equality in all cars, we are now sharing our research with the rest of the car industry. We hope this will lead to safer cars for everyone."

"The rich data of over 4 decades and 40,000 investigations involving car crashes has now been provided to the world free," says Volvo. 

What Volvo is doing to boost awareness on gender equality?

Volvo Cars is aiming at one-third of all leadership positions by 2025 to be females and has a healthy 23% women workforce.

Gender Equality: "Everyday women fight to bridge the gender gap. But why should they fight at all? Volvo is celebrating  gender equality , featuring Dr Komal Rao who is one of the few women to defeat a man in an MMA cage fight."

Commenting on the campaign, Charles Frump, Managing Director - Volvo Car India said, “We are very proud of our campaign to generate awareness about gender equality. It is something very close to our brand and the corporate mission to have at least one-third women in all leading positions globally by 2025. We have a healthy 23% ratio of women globally and in India. Our global E.V.A initiative involves creating a Female Crash Test Dummy, thereby delivering safety for all”.