Volvo's Polestar 1 592bhp plug-in Coupe will cost rather a lot - UK price revealed

Polestar 1 UK Price announced

The Polestar 1 – the first car from Volvo’s now standalone performance brand – will cost from around £135,000 when it goes on sale in the UK, followed by the Polestar 2 and Polestar 3.

When Volvo revealed the Polestar 1 – effectively a plug-in hybrid Volvo S90 Coupe – they seemed to be declaring that they had no intention of actually selling anyone the car, but were intent on a subscription model of monthly payments. But they had a change of heart.

Now, as the Polestar moves towards production, Polestar has revealed pricing for the Polestar 1 – and it’s not cheap.

It falls at the very top end of the price indications Volvo gave when they finally conceded they were willing to flog buyers a car, with a price of £135,000 in the UK, €155k in Europe and $155k in the US.

For that quite large chunk of change, UK buyers will have to put up with a LHD car – Polestar will only build the ‘1’ in LHD – but they will be getting a rather rare – Polestar are planning just 500 a year, although it could now be more – and very good looking car with proper performance potential and, in many ways, the best of both worlds with its plug-in hybrid powertrain.

That plug-in hybrid powertrain delivers 592bhp and 737lb/ft of torque, should get to 62mph in under 4.0 seconds, comes with four-wheel drive, clever damping, lots of carbon fibre and an EV range of around 100 miles.

Whether that spec will be quite as appealing when the Polestar 1 does go on sale, and there are a number of high performance EV alternatives from Premium makers offering similar performance and rapid charging, remains to be seen.

But the Polestar 1 is just the initial headline act, and all future Polestar models will be pure BEVs, with the Polestar 2 and Polestar 3 to follow.