This cool cat’s unperturbed by -28ºC.
Nascent performance brand Polestar is working hard to get its debut car, the imaginatively-named 1 grand-tourer, ready for its market debut in some 18 countries in the very near future. The sleek, 441kW mental sports car has just completed a fortnight of testing near the Arctic Circle, putting its petrol-electric hybrid system though a sub-zero stress test.
And they’re happy to report, that it’s done rather well.
The Polestar 1’s Arctic testing schedule focused on several specific aspects of the car. Specifically, the Polestar team was looking at the torque vectoring system, the drivetrain, and battery temperature regulation. The Polestar 1 isn’t expected to venture into terrain and temperatures quite like the Arctic Circle, where the lowest recorded figure through their two week stint was -28ºC.
On the 1’s performance in the snow, particularly on the torque vectoring system, Polestar’s head honcho had only one thing to say:
“This is a driver’s car.” — Thomas Ingenlath, CEO, Polestar
The drivetrain beneath the Polestar 1 is a heavily-reworked version of the T8 TwinEngine setup currently found in the Volvo S90 and XC90, though it’s been uptuned in this application. As mentioned earlier, the petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain has been engineered further and now produces an astonishing 441kW of power and 1000Nm of twist, which Polestar promises will rocket the car from rest to 96km/h (60mph) in less than 4-seconds.
The potency of the Polestar 1 is hampered somewhat by its 2-tonne weight, a penalty of packing a 34kWh battery (split into two positions in the car for better weight distribution) and two electric motors at the rear, but is offset by the carbon-fibre construction that is a first for the Volvo Group. Amazingly, this hybrid rocket ship will also pander to the environmentally-conscious motorist too, as its relatively-lightweight construction and efficient use of power means that it can travel on battery power alone for as far as 150km on a single charge, the greatest range of any combustion-electric hybrid vehicle in the world.
The Polestar 1 is set to make an appearance at the Beijing motor show at the end of this month, with China among the 18 debut markets for the brand. The UK, the US, and Canada are also on the list of launch markets, with the UK being the most critical, as right-hook production of the Polestar 1 means that if we ask really-really nicely, Volvo may look at bringing the mega-coupe to our shores.
The Polestar 1 will go into production in 2019, alongside the all-electric Polestar 2 saloon, at the Chengdu facility that itself will only be completed mid-2018.
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