The PHEV grand-tourer will bring the goods.
Nascent Swedish performance marque Polestar may still be about a year away from deliveries, but the company is continuing its charge to prove to the world that it means business. To that end, they’re taking their 441kW super-tourer, the Polestar 1, to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it’ll slink up the hillclimb course that has separated the men from the boys since 1993.
“I am really excited to drive the Polestar 1 prototype up the hill at Goodwood. Driving the hill climb has long been an ambition for me, and to be able to do it in the same prototype in which we’ve spent so many months of development time, is truly special.” — Joakim Rydholm, Chief Test Driver, Polestar
The company will not only be competing in the hillclimb. In fact, Polestar will be bringing two production-specification Polestar 1s (on top of performance prototype #004), as part of the company’s intentions to meet, greet, and build relationships with as many potential customers as possible.
“I’m thrilled that we’re going to be at the Goodwood Festival of Speed – it’s everything a big car event should be: Full of passion, enthusiasm, and a chance to get really close to the cars. The response to the Polestar 1 from Europe has been fantastic, and we see this even as vital as part of our continued ‘global handshake’ with enthusiasts and customers. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet so many people who share our passion for Polestar and the future of the brand.” — Thomas Ingenlath, CEO, Polestar
The Polestar 1, as its name suggests, is the first ground-up model for the company, following the formal split between Polestar and its repositioning as a performance-focused firm, leaving its shell as an AMG-like division of resurgent luxury carmaker Volvo. An amicable split to say the least, Polestar’s repositioning aims to help define the playing fields that Volvo and Polestar target respectively, leaving the established luxury carmaker to keep making plush and comfortable passenger cars while the new Polestar brand won’t have to make apologies for its performance-first aspirations.
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 go into production in 2019, with deliveries scheduled within the first-half of the year. While the car was stated to only be available as a left-hook proposition when it was first announced, the car has been retooled to offer right-hand drive as well, which means there’s a possibility of it arriving in Australia at some point in the future. Our fingers are crossed, how about yours?
For more information on Polestar, check out our Volvo showroom.
