From Polestar 1 to Polestar 6, a definitive information to the acclaimed EV model’s vehicles and ideas

This summer season it was all change at Polestar. After charting a comparatively regular course for the reason that firm was based in 2017, founding CEO Thomas Ingenlath and influential head of design Maximilian Missoni departed. The latter took up a brand new put up at BMW, whereas Ingenlath’s subsequent strikes are at the moment unknown. Within the months main as much as this boardroom disruption, there’d been a couple of opinion items about Polestar’s plunging inventory value and delays and diversions from what had been a well-signalled route map.

With 2024 drawing to an in depth, we’re taking inventory of the Polestar model, working via the corporate’s fashions 1 to six and mopping up the ideas, collaborations and different extra-curricular exercise. Ingenlath’s alternative is Michael Lohscheller, previously head honcho at Opel, as soon as Germany’s Common Motors subdivision and now one of many many dimming stars within the Stellantis universe. Whereas Ingenlath and Missoni introduced collectively a mix of Nordic and style design kudos to the nascent model, Lohscheller can be working with former VW and Audi designer Philipp Römers.

Will it follow its plan? Polestar can hint its origins to the tail-end of the final century. Excessive-performance variants of manufacturing Volvos had been being created by an unbiased racing group, initially often known as Flash Engineering however rebranded as Polestar Racing by the point it had been introduced into home by Volvo in July 2015. The primary time the identify appeared on a automobile was the 2010 Volvo C30 Polestar Efficiency Idea Prototype (2010) and the Volvo S60 Polestar Idea the next yr. These had been adopted by a small variety of manufacturing Volvos, with enhanced dynamics courtesy of the race group’s experience.

In October 2017, Volvo introduced the creation of Polestar as a separate, standalone model, headed up by former head of design Thomas Ingenlath. The debut mannequin was the Polestar 1, a productionised model of the 2013 Volvo Idea Coupé, initially designed by Ingenlath and reworked right into a smooth, upmarket sports activities coupé, full with a high-performance hybrid powertrain and carbon fibre bodywork.

The primary Polestar 1 was delivered in 2019 and since then the corporate has produced over 160,000 automobiles (30,000 of which have discovered properties within the UK). In February 2024, the ultimate monetary ties between Volvo and Polestar had been formally severed, though Polestar nonetheless has area on Volvo’s Gothenburg campus. Elsewhere, the corporate has an engineering hub in Coventry, UK, in addition to three manufacturing traces in China and amenities in South Carolina and South Korea.

This world manufacturing unfold is as a result of each Volvo and Polestar sit underneath the mighty Geely umbrella, alongside Lotus, LEVC, Lynk & Co and Zeekr. In consequence, there’s a useful dose of shared know-how by way of the Chinese language conglomerate’s manufacturing, technical and engineering amenities in China, along with the devoted Polestar Manufacturing Centre in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Polestar’s design and picture may be very a lot its personal, nonetheless, and stays one of the coherent and constant visible identities of any modern automobile firm.

Get the fundamentals proper, as Polestar did, and EVs keep aggressive for for much longer than ICE vehicles, with over-the-air updates bringing not simply enhanced person expertise however even higher vary and efficiency. The relative simplicity of an EV platform additionally has different advantages; when Polestar 2 was given a facelift in 2024 the one motor model was switched from front- to rear-wheel drive.

Here is our information to each Polestar, from the model’s genesis in Volvo design via to key ideas and even key partnership ventures.

Polestar 1 (2019 – 2021)

The Polestar 1 was a step into the unknown. While Volvo has had a lot of notable coupés in its lengthy historical past, together with the enduring P1800, the Bertone-designed 262C and 780, the elegant C70 and the compact C30, it has by no means strayed into the posh and efficiency realm. With Polestar it was capable of just do that. The restricted version, extremely bespoke Polestar 1 was a proof of idea for each model and expertise.

With a hybrid powertrain, relatively than pure EV, the 1 put out 600hp. A totally carbon-fibre physique stored weight down and elements had been race-spec all through. Inbuilt China, simply 1,500 models had been produced – it appears set to turn out to be one of many first real basic vehicles of the hybrid period.

Polestar 2 (2019 – )

For most individuals, Polestar started in earnest with the launch of the Polestar 2, a svelte four-door electrical fastback that additionally had clear Volvo origins. Beginning life because the 2016 Volvo Idea 40.2, a proposed imaginative and prescient for the small Volvo sedan of the long run utilizing the corporate’s new Compact Modular Structure (CMA), the design was refined and reworked into Polestar’s first mainstream product.

Amongst different issues, the Polestar 2 pioneered the incorporation of Google into automobile dashboards, with the primary built-in Android Automotive OS leisure system. Accessible in a lot of battery and motor configurations, the Polestar 2 has been stored recent since launch with {hardware} and software program overhauls which have improved the vary and efficiency, in addition to a continuously revised manufacturing technique aimed toward decreasing the automobile’s total carbon footprint.

Right now’s 2024 Polestar 2 can journey as much as 406 miles (654 km). The corporate has additionally made two limited-edition efficiency variants, the BST version 270 (2022) and BST version 230 (2023).