You can’t make this stuff up! Volvo has on the payroll a team of trained smellers. This group of eight proboscis savants were chosen because of their normal sense of smell and have been charged with guiding the designers in their choice of materials and production methods, paying particular attention to the interior of vehicles in development.

The interior of a Volvo contains many different materials that contain smelly chemical substances. While most of these substances remain locked in the material, small quantities can evaporate, creating that new car smell.

The panel monitors these substances and the smells they may cause in the cabin.

The panel consists of two teams of four people who undergo a careful selection process to ensure that they don’t demonstrate an acute, or above average, sense of smell and do not differ appreciably from each other.