To bring ‘twin engine’ hybrid technology, Volvo has taken full ownership of Polestar brand
Polestar was an independent performance car tuning and development specialists before being acquired by Volvo Cars which now has 100% ownership of the company.
What Polestar had been doing?
The Polestar earned a reputation as a motorsport outfit, since 1996, having a strong history of developing and racing Volvos. They soon expanded their business into performance road car development along with aftermarket tuning. Meanwhile, they worked their way around and became Volvo’s performance arm. In other words, they are Volvo’s sport division just like the M Division of BMW.
The fruits of the two companies under road car development partnership can be seen in the form of the muscular S60 and V60 Polestar models, having 350bhp with chassis upgrades that you can’t find in other vehicles.
What has Volvo acquired then?
Polestar Performance AB is deeply into road car performance software and aftermarket tuning components, that’s what Volvo has bought along with Polestar Holding AB, the owner of the Polestar trademarks. That means the racing division of Polestar stays intact as Volvo has not acquired it. It is said that the former owner Christian Dahl will run it after renaming it. He’ll continue his services with Polestar brand and will stay in the business of developing Volvos for motorsport.
What Volvo is going to do with Polestar?
Volvo has shown its interest in naming it high-performance models as Polestar, and to make things even more tempting, some of the models will feature Volvo’s ‘twin engine’ hybrid powerhouse. This engine has already featured in the new XC90 which offers 407bhp and emits only 49g/km CO2.
Volvo is very hopeful to be able to get 750 Polestar version of the V60 and S60 sold worldwide for the year 2015, but in the longer run, the sales may increase to 1,000 or 1,500 units per year.