POLESTAR POSITION
Automaker guided by electrification
NEW YORK CITY Ever heard of a startup that doesn’t start from scratch?
The new and emerging Polestar automotive brand is just such a beast
“We are a stand-alone startup dedicated to producing electric vehicles,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told me during an informal East Coast reveal of the Polestar 1 at the Classic Car Club of Manhattan this week. “But we have the great advantage of having access to and support of a Volvo service network and a Volvo R&D department.
“That gives us such a different starting point than new brands that are all on their own.”
Ingenlath and a handful of Polestar executives were in New York to show off the Polestar 1 after its North American debut at Pebble Beach last month.
The global reveal of the plug-in hybrid sport coupe was a year ago in Shanghai.
While light in terms of new spec revelations about the Grand Tourer 2+2 — at least in advancing what ground Driving ’s Jil McIntosh covered during the car’s showing at the Geneva Show in March — the event did sharpen the expected delivery dates of the first models to China (third quarter 2019), the U.S. (late 2019), and the rest of the world, including Canada (early 2020).
That’s good news for the 20 Canadians who so far have put down a $2,500 deposit on the performance luxury two-door. No Canadian pricing has been released yet, but in the States it is listing for US$155,000. Some 200 Americans have put deposits down, while 19 have in China, where the vehicle will be built.
With an announced first-year volume of just 500 vehicles, though with a capacity to build more, the startup is well on its way to selling out its first batch.
While the Polestar 1 is a PHEV, all future models from the company will be full electrics. The rationale to start with a gas engine assist was twofold, according to Sofia Bjornesson, project leader for the USA.
“We started with the hybrid because it is a small step to the next level,” she explained. “And the Polestar 1 is a Grand Tourer 2+2 coupe, which is often used for longer rides, and so it makes sense to have a combustion engine as support.”
The EV range is a best-in-PHEVclass 150 kilometres, it can operate in full EV mode up to 160 km/ h before the supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder gas engine kicks in (the same 320-horsepower mill found in the Volvo S90), and total power output is in the 600-hp range. There are three drive modes: full EV mode, a combination of EV and gas for allwheel-drive-like mode (electric motors drive the rear wheels, while the gas engine turns the fronts) or ICE-only mode.
Bjornesson says no official numbers are out yet, but expect the 0-to-100km/ h time to be less than four seconds.
Clearly, this is not your father’s or grandfather’s Volvo. Which is precisely why Polestar came into being as a stand-alone brand.
The Polestar 1 traces its roots to the 2014 Volvo Concept Coupe shown in Barcelona, a car at the time that was rumoured to be the basis for the next-gen C70.
That didn’t happen, mostly because Volvo execs at the time didn’t see how a performance coupe fit into their brand’s image, one that leaned heavily on safety and reliability.
Ingenlath’s radical concept coupe design simply didn’t fit that image. And no, there aren’t two Thomas Ingenlaths in this story. The guy who designed the Volvo Concept Coupe is the same guy who is now the Polestar CEO.
“We were thinking up things that just didn’t fit into the Volvo range and would have destroyed what Volvo is about,” Ingenlath said of the reaction caused internally by his Concept Coupe vision. “So we thought why not do it under a new brand?”
Polestar is not about creating an “electrification” brand for the Volvo parent company, as Volvo itself will have its own lineup of electric vehicles, ranging from PHEVs to full EVs.
Noted Ingenlath: “But (Volvo) will introduce (electrification) as an alternative to each and every one of their models, whilst we dedicate ourselves to cars that are only electric driven.”
A Polestar 2 will make its global debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, a small four-door EV sedan clearly designed to take on the Tesla Model 3.
And a Polestar 3 SUV is coming down the pike with the Tesla Model X, and others in the growing EV SUV segment, in its sights.
In addition to showing the Polestar 1 off to North American media during the event in New York, the executives outlined the “customer-centric” philosophy the company has embraced.
That includes retail stores with a maximum 250 square-metre footprint staffed by non-commission sales people.
Think Tesla stores. There’s also talk of a concierge-style approach to servicing, where Polestar will pick up and drop off customer cars requiring service.
And in the U.S., there will be a Care by Polestar subscription service that could see Polestar 1 lease customers swap out their car for a Polestar 2 just 18 months into their contract. The company is exploring a similar service in Canada, but is not in a position to announce anything yet.
Polestar COO Jonathan Goodman has been in the car business for more than three decades, most recently with Volvo and Peugeot for 28 years before that, and encapsulates how he and the Polestar staff of just 150 (excluding manufacturing) feel about the future of the company.
“We’re in a sweet spot as brand. We’re a new electric car company at a time when electric cars are what everyone is talking about, we’ve got the agility and ability to make quick decisions like a startup, yet we’re backed by the proven technology so we don’t start from scratch. We’re in a spot that no other startup can be in. We can be global from Day 1 thanks to Volvo’s dealer network and expertise.”