POLESTAR 1 HYBRID COUPE TO BE PRICED FROM €155,000 IN EUROPE
The Polestar 1 hybrid coupé will cost from €155,000 (about £135,500 at current rates) in Europe when it goes on sale in the middle of 2019, although customers will purchase the car through a monthly subscription.
Polestar said it had revealed the total price to illustrate where the car sits in the marketplace. The figure makes it around £8000 more expensive than the Tesla Model S P100D.
The 1 is on display at the Beijing Motor Show in the week following confirmation that a prototype has completed its maiden dynamic shakedown test in the Arctic Circle.
The 592bhp machine from Volvo's newly hived-off performance arm completed around two weeks of testing, with a focus on its drivetrain, batteries and torque vectoring system. Polestar conducted the tests in the Arctic Circle to place the hybrid system under pressure in temperatures that reached -28d0C.
Polestar boss Thomas Ingenlath said the torque vectoring system enhanced the 1's cornering responsiveness and accuracy, adding: "This is a driver's car."
The 1 is already available to order, for a deposit of €2500 (currently £2185). It will initially be sold in 18 countries, including the UK. Most of the markets fall in north, west and southern Europe, but China, the US and Canada are also included.
Polestar chose to increase the availability of the model at launch from 12 countries to 18 due to high popularity.
The car made its European debut at the Geneva motor show in February and is going on a brand-building world tour before its public launch. Once production begins, 500 examples of the 1 are due to be sold each year.
Before the opening of order books, Polestar said more than 6000 potential customers had expressed an interest in the car.
The 1 has an all-carbon fibre body based on a shortened version of the Volvo S90's platform. It will produce 592bhp from a front-mounted 2.0-litre turbo engine, plus twin electric motors on the rear axle, and is very much a halo car.
It will make more European appearances — possibly including a public driving debut at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed — before heading to the US and then China, where a special manufacturing facility capable of handling carbon fibre structures is already under construction near Volvo’s existing plant at Chengdu.
According to Ingenlath, who also remains Volvo’s design director, Polestar will become Volvo’s “technological spearhead” that, after the 1 hits the market, will make only electric performance cars. The company is preparing for an early 2020 launch of the 2 hatchback saloon, which bears a very close relationship to Ingenlath’s Concept 40.2 that has already been seen at motor shows. An SUV, the 3, will arrive after that.
Polestar is understood to still be deciding on details of its powertrain design, although two electric motors (one front, one rear) are suggested. The 2 should cost “from €40,000” and have a practical driving range of about 200 miles.