Details

Application

To use this API, you must first create an application. When your application is created, you will receive a VCC API key. This key must be included in the header of each request sent to the API.

Visit your account page to create or view applications.

Example

-H 'vcc-api-key: <your-vcc-api-key>'

Authorisation

This API implements the OAuth2 framework. An access token must be included in the header of each request sent to the API.

Visit the authorisation page for more information.

Example

-H 'authorization: Bearer <your-access-token>'

Commands

Commands are used to send instructions to the vehicle. For example, you can send a command to lock the vehicle or flash the lights.

To determine which commands can be sent to a specific vehicle, refer to the List commands endpoint. If you send a command unsupported by a vehicle, you will receive a response with the status code 404 Not found and an error message describing the issue.

Common response model

Most of the responses from the API will have a common response body regardless of which endpoint is called, for successful (except 204) responses the response body will contain a data field which contains the information exposed by the endpoint. Each endpoint contains different datasets hence the format of the data field will change.

Example

{
  "data": {
    "brakeFluidLevelWarning": {
      "value": "NO_WARNING",
      "timestamp": "2023-11-14T12:16:34.324Z"
    }
  }
}

Status codes

All the status codes which the API can return are described below.

Error handling

Sometimes things go wrong, in such cases the API will in addition to the error code return a message body containing information about the error. The message body has a base structure which will be the same regardless of the error. It can also contain a dynamic detail field with specific data for the particular HTTP status code and endpoint.

Example

{
  "error": {
	  "message": "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE",
	  "description": "Not allowed, car is in use or asleep"
    }
}

Debugging errors

If the error message from the request body doesn't provide enough information for troubleshooting, you can contact us at developer.portal@volvocars.com.

Before contacting us, please include a GUID in the vcc-api-operationId header of the problematic API request. This will help us locate your requests in our systems. If a vcc-api-operationId is not provided in a request, a GUID will automatically be generated for the request.

The vcc-api-operationId header will also always be returned in the response as a header with the same name.

Example

-H 'vcc-api-operationId: <GUID>'

Vehicle sleep and error modes

When the car has not been used for more than 3-5 days, the invocation command request may not be able to perform because is set in standby mode. When starting the car the system reactivates and you can send invocation commands again.

The different error statuses that is possible to get from invocation commands are:

Example response when vehicle in sleep mode

{
  "data": {
    "created": "2021-05-03T10:19:16.762Z",
    "updated": "2021-05-03T10:19:18.133Z",
    "command": "FLASH",
    "requestId": "6567aa84-0d96-485e-b140-2be516d430db",
    "invokeStatus": "VEHICLE_IN_SLEEP"
  }
}