Polestar unveils their first car as an independent company

Polestar, a subsidiary of Volvo Cars has unveiled their first car as a standalone company. It will be called as the Polestar 1 and the production is expected to start by mid-2019.

Polestar started out as a performance brand that tuned Volvo cars. It was later taken over by Volvo Cars to make performance road cars for the company. Currently it makes the 362 BHP Polestar variants of the S60 and V60 as well as performance upgrades for existing Volvo cars. From 2017 onward, Polestar will be a separate company in the Volvo group that will be focused on design and production of high performance electric cars.

The Polestar 1 is a two-door, four-seater coupe with a hybrid power plant. A maximum of 500 cars will be built per year and all those will be offered on a subscription basis. The car is based on Volvo's Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA) however Polestar claims that their engineers have modified almost 50% of the platform. Polestar 1 measures 4,500 mm in length and compared to the Volvo S90, the wheelbase is 320 mm less and the rear has been shortened by 200 mm. The front to rear weight distribution of the car is in the ratio of 48:52. It also debuts the use of carbon-fibre on major body parts for the first time on a car of Volvo Group.

The Polestar 1 features dual electric motors putting out a combined 215 BHP that power the rear wheels. A 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine drives the front wheels. The combined output is claimed to be 592 BHP and 1,000 Nm of torque. It also gets a new torque vectoring system that sends the required power to wheels on either side instead of braking the inner wheel while cornering. It also features Ohlins continuously controlled electric suspension (CESi). In pure electric mode, the car behaves like a rear-wheel-drive vehicle with a claimed range of 150 km. Polestar expects that most customers would use the car in electric mode only for most of the trips.

The company has also laid out plans for their future vehicles – Polestar 2 and Polestar 3. The former is expected to start production by late 2019. Polestar 2 will be the first battery electric vehicle (BEV) from the Volvo Group and will compete against the Tesla model 3. Polestar 3 will be an SUV-styled vehicle which will be priced between the Polestar 1 and Polestar 2 in terms of volumes and pricing.

More details about the subscription services were also disclosed. All Polestar cars will be signed on with a 2 or 3-year subscription at an all-inclusive monthly payment. The costs will include insurance and maintenance. Polestar will also provide additional services including concierge and on-demand services for customers at an added charge. E.g. a larger Volvo car when needed, booking a valet or a car wash at a convenient time, etc.

Polestar will also open dedicated spaces, that will give a preview, test drive and demonstrate the Polestar cars. They will not be housed in existing Volvo dealerships. Further, Polestar cars will be built in China under a joint venture formed between Volvo Cars and two other companies within the parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding.