POLESTAR 1: You MIGHT be able to buy one after all. Guess how much for.

Polestar 1: You MIGHT be able to buy one after all

The Polestar 1 – Volvo’s Concept Coupe made a standalone Polestar Performance Hybrid – might just be available for sale after all. But it’s not cheap.

The Polestar 1 – Volvo’s Concept Coupe made reality as a Polestar Performance GT – was revealed this week, and it promises much.

It promises stunning performance from its 600PS hybrid powertrain, it promises to be practical to live with and cheap to run with its almost 100 mile EV range – and it’s undoubtedly good looking.

But the downsides are its low production numbers – just 500 a year – the fact that here in the UK we’d have to take it in LHD, and that you can’t buy one. Or maybe you can.

All the Polestar press releases on the ‘1’ said it would only be available on a subscription basis, which would mean a fixed monthly payment for all costs – from insurance to depreciation – with the car being handed back to Polestar at the end of two or three years. A bit like a mobile phone contract.

Polestar have given no indication of how much that subscription will be, and as they haven’t come up with a price it was tough to come up with an estimate for the subscription either. But now they have come up with a price for the 1.

After being pushed by Autoblog, Polestar have conceded that they would probably find a way to sell a car if a buyer really wanted to buy instead of subscribe. And if they did, it would be in the range of £115,000 to £135,000 (€130-150k). Which isn’t cheap.

On that basis, and using the published subscription costs of the new Volvo XC40 (£630 a month), we can’t see the Polestar 1 giving you any change from £2,000 a month – and probably more.

Still, unless you have £135k down the back of the sofa, it’s a lot less painful to take the subscription.

Which, of course, is the whole pitch.