Yahoo Autos We’re Hoping This Volvo P1800 Has an EV Motor
Hybrid and EV maker Polestar now has two cars ready for market, helpfully named 1 and 2. And the smart money says an SUV is also in the works. But some spy shots, caught by thevolvofans over on Reddit, seem to show a classic Volvo P1800 with no exhaust pipes. That usually means an electric drivetrain.
The machine was spotted outside Hallard Proving Ground near Polestar’s (and Volvo’s) home in Gothenburg, Sweden. It looks similar to the old P1800, though we can’t really tell the size from the photos. It has an open grille, which would be weird for an electric vehicle, but no pipes. It also looks like it has a little Polestar Engineered badge on the front. Being so near to Polestar and Volvo’s headquarters, it must be a testbed for something.
There are two possibilities here. One, CarBuzz notes that the P1800’s 60th birthday is coming up next year. It would be a perfect tribute to bring it back with one of Polestar’s new powertrains making more than 600 hp. Unfortunately, the tires don’t really look suited to that monstrous Polestar 1 power unit, and even the Polestar 2’s 408 horses would seem to overwhelm them. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing; overwhelming the tires is a fun pastime.)
The other option is that the vehicle could be a prop for the company’s proposed World EV Day announced earlier this month. Polestar is joining with Green.TV and ABB to promote electric mobility, to be celebrated on September 9.
CarBuzz did some registration checks and found out that the camo’d car is currently owned by Mattias Evans, head of engine development at Volvo’s Cyan Racing division. It was previously owned by Jonas Christian Dahl, who is the current CEO of Cyan Racing. It has to be something cool.
We talked to reps from Polestar, who claim they have nothing to do with this vehicle. We’ve also emailed Volvo, who says it’s not one of its cars either. We’re now waiting on Cyan Racing, to see if it spills the beans on what, exactly this is. We’ve seen a bunch of electric-powered restomods lately, if the Volvo or Polestar family is working on one of those, the P1800 is a great choice.
Check out a few more angles of this mystery car over at CarBuzz, then share with us your ideas on what we’re looking at in the comments below.
