Yahoo Autos 2020 Polestar 1: Swanky, Swedish, and Just the Beginning
Formerly Volvo’s in-house tuning division, Polestar is expanding its purview. The sub-brand will create a distinct, aggressively styled lineup of vehicles intended to cast an experimental aura over the more staid Volvo marque, starting with the mid-2019 launch of the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1.
Based on the Scalable Product Architecture from Volvo’s 60- and 90-series models, the 1 is a dramatically smaller coupe version of the S90 sedan, with a sizable 12.6 inches chopped out of the wheelbase and another 7.2 cleaved from the rear overhang. The bodywork is all carbon fiber, as are a few structure-enhancing underbody bits. Polestar then stuffs the resulting smaller-than-a-Mercedes-C-class two-door with uprated powertrain building blocks from the S90/V90/XC90: The turbo- and supercharged 2.0-liter inline-four and electric motor up front will pitch in 375 horsepower. In back, instead of a single electric motor, there are two more-powerful 111-hp units. Plus, there’s a planetary gearset hooked to either side of the differential that enables true overdrive-the-outside-wheel torque vectoring. Total system output: 591 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The claimed 93 miles of range in its rear-wheel-drive EV mode towers above that of other plug-in hybrids and is achieved by employing three battery packs-one in the floor plus two in the rear-for a total of 34.0 kilowatt-hours of electricity storage.
In person, the 1 looks deliciously taut, cinched, and hunkered down on its 21-inch Pirelli P Zeros, even though its claimed curb weight of 4400 pounds-just 300 lighter than the gigantic plug-in S90 sedan-suffers from the hulking battery packs that deliver the 1’s substantial electric range. In addition to some of the expected tweaks, like upsized front brakes with Akebono six-piston calipers and adaptive dampers from Öhlins, are the benefits that come with having designer Thomas Ingenlath, formerly Volvo’s head of design, serving as Polestar’s CEO, such as the ultrasubtle body-color badging or the prominently displayed (and labeled) seven power electronics connectors and associated wiring behind a clear panel in the trunk. This, Ingenlath says, required much coordination with the individual suppliers to achieve a consistent orange color. And the 1 even has its own polestar: an illuminated logo projected onto the glass roof above occupants’ heads.
Hold on to your herring-Polestar is asking $155,000 for one of the 500 units per year it’s looking to sell globally. All will emerge from a new plant in Chengdu, China. But the promise of Polestar is as much about tinkering with the carmaker’s operating model, parts of which may eventually blossom elsewhere in the Volvo and parent-company Geely empire, as it is about the cars. All Polestar 1s will be available via a bundled lease, which includes insurance as well as the ability to borrow other Volvos. Polestar will use a smartphone app as the car’s key, so that after a service appointment is scheduled, the owner can remotely grant access to the courier who will then ferry it to the shop. The brand will retail the cars via small stand-alone spaces to be built in roughly 80 to 100 major metropolitan areas; about a quarter of them will be in the U.S., where they will be owned by franchisees. By doing so, Volvo is hoping to sidestep endless legal battles like the ones Tesla has fought to own and operate its stores. The Polestar-tuned versions of Volvo models will continue, although, confusingly, those won’t be sold through the Polestar outlets.
And there are more Polestar-only models coming. In addition to being less expensive and built in higher volumes than the 1, all other Polestars will be electric only. The Polestar 2 arrives at the end of 2019 and will be a long-range EV intended to take the fight to Tesla’s Model 3, while Polestar’s 3 will be an electric SUV. By then, the company hopes Polestar will be much more of a household name.
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