We like the no-nonsense video.
Freshly-minted performance car manufacturer Polestar is certainly gunning for a big entrance, with the Volvo sub-marque revealing the rear of its very first model just a few hours ahead of its international debut later today. The Polestar ‘No.1’ (as it appears to be called) will be making its global entrance in Shanghai, and marks the first step by Polestar in its new position as a standalone premium performance marque since its separation from Volvo (insofar as being just a tuner, at least).
The announcement to split Polestar from Volvo was made all the way back in June, when Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson said that Polestar would be spun off into an independent marque in and of itself, which would continue to provide ‘optimisation’ packages for Volvo’s series cars while also being given the freedom to develop its own bespoke range of cars through a synergistic relationship with the parent company. This relationship is clear to see from the fully-revealed rump of the Polestar No.1, which bears more than a fleeting resemblance to the Volvo Concept Coupe that we first saw in 2013.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been given small, highly-focused snippets of the car, which were meaningless in and of themselves but made up a slowly-revealing image when put together. We ran an earlier article after those snippets were put together by forum members on Swedespeed, which eventually showed just how closely Polestar would be working with Volvo going forwards.
During the first official mention of Polestar being repositioned as an independent marque beneath the Volvo umbrella, there was a great amount of emphasis placed on Polestar’s electrification, with Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson saying that the Polestar “will be a credible competitor in the emerging global market for high-performance electrified cars.”
So while we’d like to dream about a turbocharged 5-cylinder mill, the reality look more like a setup similar to the T8 TwinEngine drivetrain employed in various Volvo products, though undoubtedly uptuned to produce far more than the 300kW/640Nm that’s presently offered in the XC90 with that drivetrain. Autocar suggests that a 448kW drivetrain could lurk beneath the minimalist Scandinavian body, but we’ll have to wait for the reveal later today to make heads or tails of that.
While there’s little doubt that this Polestar Coupé will turn heads, we wonder just how much design work has been done. A two-door S90 perhaps, around about the size of an S60, would definitely give the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe a massive headache, especially if the designers have been on holiday and ended up putting the 2013 concept straight into production.
In any case, stay tuned to CarShowroom, and be sure to check out the live-stream of Polestar’s debut later today, expected to take place at 5.10pm CET.
For more information on Volvo, check out our Showroom.
