Volvo’s Polestar brand to build its own electric sports cars ~ station of gear

Polestar is to offer its own range of electric performance cars separately from Volvo as parent firm Geely looks to replicate AMG's success

2017-06-12 06:30

Volvo’s performance brand Polestar will be going it alone with its own range of electric performance cars, Auto Express can exclusively reveal. We can expect to see the first standalone Polestar model later this year.

According to a senior source inside Geely (Volvo and Polestar’s parent company) the company wants to create a line-up of brands to rival the VW Group.

• Volvo Polestar everything you need to know

With Volvo cementing its position rivalling premium brands, Geely wants Polestar to take a sportier role within its group. It wants to replicate what Mercedes’ AMG brand has done in producing its own bespoke AMG cars as well as modified Mercedes-AMG models.

Alongside Volvo and Polestar, Geely’s new brand LYNK & Co will cover the mainstream, while Geely also sells its own brand cars in its home Chinese market.

The company also sees further potential for the London Taxi Company, which it bought in 2013 and Geely is also currently in talks with Lotus about taking a majority stake in the British sports car and engineering firm.

Volvo’s new SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) and CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform technology will be used for a new generation of hot Polestars with an electric, SPA-based car likely to break cover first, some time this year. The SPA platform underpins the Volvo XC60 and XC90 SUVs as well as the V90 estate and S90 saloon models.

Polestar will continue to design and deliver performance enhancements for existing Volvo cars, while Polestar is set to become the global face of Geely’s motorsport efforts – the company currently prepares and runs Volvo Polestar models under the Polestar Cyan Racing brand.

With Polestar focussing on electric cars, that’s bound to start rumours of a Geely Polestar involvement in Formula E, which Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson has hinted at in the past.

Volvo bought Polestar in June 2015, having worked with the Swedish tuning specialists since 1996. Like Volvo, Polestar will keep its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden where its CEO is former Volvo UK boss Nick Connor.

What do you think of the ambitious plans for Polestar’s future? Let us know in the comments…

Steve Fowler

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