Lordy, PR-speak can be offputting. Nevertheless, the newly single Polestar — cast off from Volvo Cars to become its own electrified performance brand under the Geely corporate umbrella — is heading straight to the United States.
The U.S., not surprisingly, was chosen as an initial launch market for the brand, along with China (every electric car maker’s dream market), Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. What form will the rollout take? Let’s just say there’s going to be a lot of interaction. Physical interaction.
Hey, get your mind out of the Swedish gutter. These interactions, which the automaker assures as will be with the brand, but not necessarily a car, won’t occur until the middle of 2019. That’s when the 600-horsepower Polestar 1 begins production.
Don’t expect to walk into a dealership. Rather, customers interested in the Polestar 1 and subsequent all-electric models will enter a “Polestar Space,” which sounds like the title of a futuristic sci-fi movie. It’s actually just “an environment where customers can physically interact with the brand.” The U.S., along with the other selected countries, was chosen due to public reaction to the brand’s October launch.
Polestar has three models in the works. The first, the Polestar 1, is an ultra-expensive offering that looks like a shortened S90 coupe. Beneath the paint, however, lies a carbon fiber body, a front-mounted 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder driving the front wheels, and two electric motors driving the rear wheels. Total torque from both powerplants is 737 lb-ft. Both powertrains can operate independently from one another, or combine their traction and action, depending on what kind of driving the buyer has in mind that particular day. Polestar claims a range of 62 miles on battery power alone.
It’s also oh-so-exclusive. With a planned annual production volume of just 500 units from its Chengdu, China, assembly plant (currently under construction), the Polestar 1 will not be a common sight. Nor can buyers expect to find one in a Polestar Space. Still, it doesn’t seem like that’s a problem.
“During the brand’s launch day in October, one customer per minute was registering their interest in being one of the first to receive the Polestar 1 using an all-new subscription model,” the automaker said in a statement. “Expressions of interest are made through www.polestar.com and these will be converted to vehicle orders when the formal order books for the Polestar 1 open in early 2018.”
Ownership will be subscription-based, with servicing handled by Volvo. Get that VISA ready.
Those of lesser means will want to wait before interacting with the Polestar brand. The automaker’s next vehicle — the imaginatively named Polestar 2 — will be a more affordable midsize sedan, followed by a Polestar 3 SUV priced somewhere between Polestars 1 and 2. If this sounds exactly like the product timeline of a certain California-based electric car maker, well, you’re right.
[Image: Polestar]
Yep, everyday I’m more certain that the newest car I will ever own is going to be a about a 2005. I don’t want to ‘subscribe’ to a characterless box, I like the sound and feel of gasoline burning, I don’t need a touch screen.
Yeah, because they didn’t have any of that from 2006 to 2018 (and counting…)
Polestar?
Cue Lou Reed’s stripper anthem – Take a Walk on the Wild Side!
Next year they will come out with their sport version, the Polecat.
I’m waiting for the downmarket Prolestar for people of more modest means.
Guys, go ahead and “interact” with the Pole Star.
Just follow a some common-sense rules:
Be sure to use a condom.
Don’t let your wife find out about your “physical interaction”.
“‘Physically Interact’ With the Polestar”
Yes, they plan to release an SUV called the LapDance!
Shut up and take my money.
Up until this point, a “space” where I could “physically interact with the brand” was called a dealership. I could also buy one of the brand’s products there. I’m not sure that’s Volvo is really innovating here.
If it wasn’t for Volvo’s association with this brand, I’d put all these promises up there with Faraday Future.
But it is Volvo, and no product from this venture will ever be affordable or mass produced. In that sense, they’re more like Rimac or Lucid Motors.
I don’t think I would want to physically interact with this vehicle if Ray Moore was in line ahead of me. The seats may be a little on the icky side! Sorry, this is late to the party but I couldn’t help myself.
Volvo must have a 14 year old retro model for that?
and no mall outlets ;)
Wow a mustang that isn’t styled like crap
I logged in to say something similar.
At first I thought, oooh a new Mustang. Then I re-read the headline.
Especially these rear lights. Hideous and cheap.
Cars made in China and sold inbtje States? I do u understand that they are owned by Volvo and there should be Q.C. by Volvo. However, I am reluctant to buy one, even though I do buy certain things from American brands made in China, like my Red Wing boots. But this is a whole different ball game. Although they are only producing a limited number, they may be able to take their time with production and assembly.
But who is Volvo owned by?
I want my car to sound fast, not actually be fast. Sounding fast lets you have fun with fewer speeding tickets. Golf carts don’t sound fast to me, no matter how fast they actually are. Maybe a really good stereo with some vintage Ferrari V12 noises piped in would make me consider one?
Anyone else watch the latest Grand Tour with Hamster driving that 1200hp Romanian missile on wheels that he wrecked? I don’t get the point of that sort of thing at all. I want to be able to put the windows down in a tunnel and feel like the hounds of H3LL are chasing me, preferably without actually having to break the speed limit (much).
So I can not only watch Polestar but for additional fee can also interact with her? How far “interaction” goes and do I need to pay tips?
But honestly may be it is called Polestar but it is still Volvo, I looks like Volvo, smells like Volvo and I can imagine drives like Volvo. So no, thank you. Give me Tesla instead, I like purity of electrons silently moving vehicle with no help from dead dinosaurs. Using gasoline engine in electric car is like carrying horse around in Ford Model T just in case it runs out of gas.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing some of those marketeers “physically interact” with a brand. A branding iron. PSSSS! Ow!
Or is this what they now call a “gene flow event”?
So, yuppies who like the Mustang but would never buy one because -ugh- “American” finally have an alternative they won’t be embarrassed to show their friends…