Polestar 1

In fact, the rear seats are better off being treated as the trunk, because the Polestar 1’s actual trunk is mostly filled with batteries. Yes, it’s cool that I can see them through a little window, but at 4.3 cubic feet, I barely have room for groceries in what little cargo space remains. Were it my $155k — or my $160k with the matte-finish paint you see here, the only cost option for the car — I can’t quite bring myself to say I’d pick the Polestar 1 over, say, a similarly-priced Porsche 911. Or, for that matter, that the purely-electric Taycan GTS or Audi e-tron GT wouldn’t sway me instead. All three could deliver amply as daily drivers without compromising on speed or comfort, even if for all their style and performance they wouldn’t catch so many curious glances or stir the soul in quite the same way.

• Under the deeply scalloped hood resides Volvo’s familiar gas/electric hybrid setup.
• Polestar, Volvo Car Group’s performance brand, has revealed its future as a new standalone electric performance brand.
• The customer never needs to visit a Polestar environment if they don’t want to.
• The gas engine is a turbocharged and supercharged 2.0-liter inline-four (a variant of the four-pot found in every Volvo vehicle).

Polestar, Volvo Car Group’s performance brand, has revealed its future as a new standalone electric performance brand. However you say it, you’ll be doing it while sideways in the Polestar—this heavy coupe turns like a mid-engine sports car. To say that you can feel the rear-wheel torque vectoring at work would be an insult to such a well-tuned system, but the Polestar 1 responds in corners in ways that defy expectations. Because its rear motors torque vector even without adding forward thrust, it nixes understeer on its own, remaining neutral off the throttle, on the throttle, or with the accelerator pedal pinned. A slight oversteer bias likely costs some overall grip, so its 0.95-g skidpad performance is less than we’d expect from 275- and 295-section Pirelli PZ4 summer tires. It’s behind the 1.01 g posted by the Bentley, which, let’s not forget, shares its chassis with the Porsche Panamera.

Polestar 1 Coupe – Ca$197,000

However, for a GT car, the engine alone is too small, too weak, and powers the wrong wheels. The Polestar 1’s rear wheels are powered by a 34-kilowatt-hour battery and dual 114 hp electric motors capable of 60 miles of range. All together, the hybrid system produces 619 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque which will get the 5,200-pound coupe from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds.

Those brands wouldn’t invest millions of dollars in sustainable fuel-powered race programs if there wasn’t an enticing ROI in it for them. Looks are, of course, subjective, but I’m of the opinion that this is the best-looking car to grace our garage in 2019. The design is largely unchanged from that of Volvo’s 2013 Concept Coupe, itself an homage to the gorgeous Volvo P1800, and the Polestar is all the better for it. Its wide grille, Thor’s Hammer headlights, and especially the wide haunches that frame the rear end stirred excitement in me every time I’d approach it with the keys.

The combined petrol-electric powerplant has a generous nature – this is not a mealy-mouthed hybrid desperately dodging around emission legislation, but instead a good, sensible, powerful, well-executed solution for a luxury GT. It has the ability to get itself around happily on electric, and when you want a proper hit of torque you can fire up the supercharged, turbocharged 2.0-litre and take off. In both cases, from behind the wheel, the foibles feel a whole lot more like character.

• Its proportions are every bit as captivating as those of the best Aston Martins.
• To make up for that, additional carbon bracing has been used, boosting overall chassis stiffness by 45 per cent.
• The Polestar 1 may cost $155,000, but you don’t get ventilated front seats for that, or a sunshade for the panoramic glass roof.
• We brought our medium-sized bags and thought nothing of it — surely, the big grand-tourer would also have a spacious enough trunk to accommodate us.
• A further example of the technology spearhead role is an all-new double electric motor system driving both rear wheels, connected together by planetary gears.
• The Polestar name sounds like the title of a reality-TV search for Sweden’s hottest exotic dancer, but is in fact derived from references to “pole position” and Sweden’s frozen north.

Although the 1 arrived in 2019 and will soon be discontinued, those svelte good looks, electrifying performance and limited edition production numbers should ensure the Polestar becomes a future classic. “Our new Polestar Production Centre is no ordinary car factory,” said Jonathan Goodman, Chief Operating Officer of Polestar. This isn’t all that surprising, given that the brand intends to produce only 1500 examples for the world. Buyers can have their choice of wheels and exterior and interior colors. In April of 2021, the final version of the Polestar 1 was unveiled at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show.

Engine, Transmission, And Performance

On the other hand, the Polestar’s ass-out limit handling is easily controllable and very fun. It’s not the power that’s the most impressive part of the drivetrain, though; it’s the integration. Two drivetrains, really, capable of collaborating or working independently.

It’s based on a shortened version of the Volvo S90’s platform, but with roughly 200mm chopped out of the wheelbase and a further 200mm removed from behind the rear wheels. To make up for that, additional carbon bracing has been used, boosting overall chassis stiffness by 45 per cent. The Car Guide is the benchmark of excellence for the Canadian automotive landscape. It offers news, reviews, and exclusive videos, as well as all of the important details concerning new and used vehicles. Then we have the growing interest in biofuels which would continue to enable the world’s addiction to ICE’s but let us use our current infrastructure. Leading organizations like motorsport’s FIA made a promise to switch to 100% sustainable fuels in the World Endurance Championship by 2022 with F1 making the switch by 2025. Those deadlines become more relevant when you consider GM is entering the WEC in 2023 and Volkswagen Group is seriously considering a bid in F1 to compete against Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, and Renault.

Interior

The 1’s propulsion comes via a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder, supercharged and turbocharged engine that drives the front wheels, which makes a claimed 326 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque. The defining characteristic of the Polestar’s everyday driving experience, though, is its electric power. If the battery has plenty of charge, the gas engine sits dormant until your right foot explores the final inch or two of throttle travel. The hint of lag that’s present when you’re demanding the powertrain’s full potential is nowhere to be found in most street driving scenarios. It just accumulates speed the way a car in this segment should.

But 326 hp won’t launch a two-and-a-half-ton coupe to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds. The rest of the power comes from those three battery-powered motors—two on the rear axle for instant torque vectoring and an integrated starter generator up front. Not that the car is one of the many PHEVs where electricity plays a subsidiary role. [newline]The Polestar 1 is much more electric than it needs to be for places where the bar is set low, thanks to the substantial 34kW of battery capacity that it carries, and the trio of motors this powers.