Polestar


Polestar is a Sino-Swedish automotive brand jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and its parent company Geely. It is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden with production taking place in Chengdu, China. The company develops electric performance cars and offers performance hardware upgrades and engine software optimisations for Volvo models through their Polestar Engineered division.
The Polestar name originates from the STCC Polestar racing team which spawned Polestar Performance AB, in turn acquired by Volvo Cars in July 2015. The racing team changed its name to Cyan Racing, while maintaining close ties to both Volvo and Geely, later focusing on Polestar sister brand Lynk & Co.
In June 2017, Volvo announced Polestar would begin producing high-end electric performance cars under its own name and badge, to compete with brands such as Tesla. Polestar also functions as an innovation lab for the Volvo Car Group, developing designs and technologies of a more experimental nature.

Historical overview

The company origins can be traced back to the foundation of Flash Engineering in 1996, a Swedish racing team competing in Swedish Touring Car Championship. The team was later sold and rebranded to Polestar Racing, starting to engineer their own racing Volvos in the late 2000s. In 2009 the brand became the official Volvo partner to modify existing models, under the brand Polestar Performance. Volvo eventually bought the company and brand in July 2015, offering Polestar enhanced models directly from their resellers.
Polestar has also produced prototype cars, with the first and most famous being the C30 Polestar Performance Concept Prototype with over 450 bhp and 510 Nm.
The Volvo S60 Polestar Concept is the heir to the C30 Polestar, featuring 508 BHP from a modified T6 engine, launched in June 2012. The car sprints from in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of over. American car magazine Motor Trend tested the car at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca where it broke the lap record for four-door cars, matching the lap time of an Audi R8.
Below is a selection of petrol and hybrid powered Polestar models:
IntroducedModelTypeEngineDrive-train
2009Volvo C30 Polestar Conceptconcept5-cylinder, 2500 cc, turbocharged, 451 PSAWD, 6-speed manual
2012Volvo S60 Polestar Conceptconcept6-cylinder, 3000 cc, turbocharged, 508 PSAWD, 6-speed manual
2013Volvo S/V60 Polestarproduction6-cylinder, 3000 cc, turbocharged, 350 PSAWD, 6-speed auto
2016Volvo S/V60 Polestar Drive-Eproduction4-cylinder, 1969 cc, turbocharged, 367 PSAWD, 8-speed auto
2018Volvo S60 T8 Polestar Engineeredproduction4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PSAWD, 8-speed auto
2020Volvo V60 T8 Polestar Engineeredproduction4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PSAWD, 8-speed auto
2020Volvo XC60 T8 Polestar Engineeredproduction4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PSAWD, 8-speed auto

On October 17, 2017, Volvo Cars and Geely Holding announced that the Polestar would become a standalone brand focusing on electric cars.

Products

Production Cars

The first Polestar car was introduced on October 17, 2017: Polestar 1, a luxurious 2+2 coupé inspired by Volvo's Concept Coupé introduced in 2013, which includes influences from the legendary Volvo P1800. The Polestar 1 features an electric hybrid drivetrain, with a combined power output of and of torque, vectored by two rear motors. The car has a battery and a range of in pure electric mode. The Polestar 1 will be built in a new purpose-built Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China, from 2019 at a rate of up to 500 per year, and made available via subscription rather than sale.
In 2019, Polestar announced the Polestar 2, a mid-sized battery-electric vehicle. It was unveiled on February 27, 2019 in an online unveiling which was broadcast from the Polestar headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. Directly after, it had its public debut at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. The initial phase of the Polestar product roll out will then be completed by the subsequent arrival of a larger SUV-style BEV, the Polestar 3.

Polestar Precept

On February 25, 2020, Polestar unveiled the Precept concept car. It was expected to debut at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show, however the event was cancelled as a precautionary measure to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Performance optimisation

Under the label Polestar Engineered, Polestar offers enhancements for Volvo cars which deliver better performance. Examples are engine optimisations with retained warranty and unchanged fuel consumption and emissions. The engine optimisation increases the power and torque output, varying depending on engine model. The response of the throttle can be modified and the character of the transmission is tweaked.

Racing

Polestar has been working with Volvo since 1996, starting with racing Volvo cars and being involved in the development of race cars for Cyan Racing. In 2014, Polestar was involved in the development of a V8 powered Volvo S60 that was raced by Garry Rogers Motorsport in the Australian V8 Supercars series. Robert Dahlgren was seconded to Australia in 2014 as part of this programme and pulled out in the end of 2016.