Volvo buys Polestar – plans more performance models

Volvo has acquired 100 per cent of Polestar as its seeks to extend its range of Polestar badged performance cars, especially hybrid models.

Volvo has collaborated with Polestar to deliver performance versions of its production cars for some time, but as the ‘New’ Volvo starts to emerge they’ve bitten the bullet, taken control of Polestar and plan an extended range of Polestar-badged performance Volvos.

Recently, the profile of Polestar has increased as Volvo seek to give their performance models more profile, with the most recent news being the arrival of Polestar upgrades for Volvo’s latest Drive-E T4, T6, D4 and D5-engined cars.

But now Volvo has taken control of Polestar (apart from the racing division, which continues under former Polestar owner Christian Dahl) we can expect more models to come, with Volvo saying they plan to double the number of Polestar cars sold in the medium term.

Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo boss, said:

Driving a Volvo Polestar is a special experience. We have decided to bring this experience to more Volvo drivers, placing the full resources of Volvo behind the development of Polestar as the model name for our high performance cars.

High on the list of ‘to-dos’ for Polestar – apart from delivering the new XC90 Polestar – will be developing Volvo’s hybrid powerplants to deliver more performance, and producing performance packages for existing Volvos.