Polestar 1: Extreme Of The Niche Vehicle

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Polestar 1: Extreme Of The Niche Vehicle
Polestar 1: Extreme Of The Niche Vehicle

Video: Polestar 1: Extreme Of The Niche Vehicle

Video: Polestar 1: Extreme Of The Niche Vehicle
Video: New Matte Magnesium 2021 Polestar 1 2024, March
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The Polestar 1 is intended to pave the way for the Swedish Volvo subsidiary in electromobility. That could succeed, because the hybrid coupé leaves a lasting impression on the test drives.

Does that really fit together? Sustainability and top performance? For Thomas Ingenlath this is a rhetorical question. After all, the 55-year-old is responsible for the Swedish high-performance brand Polestar. The Swedes will deliver the first cars of their Polestar 1 hybrid coupé to customers in December. It is a plug-in hybrid with an output of 609 hp and an electric range of 125 kilometers. The one like the other is an announcement. So far there has not been a plug-in hybrid with such a large range.

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If you follow Ingenlath's explanations, then precisely this kind of performance data is needed to make electric mobility popular. “We have to enable sustainability while maintaining pleasurable and joyful elements. This is the only way to help ensure that electromobility is widely accepted,”he said recently in an interview with Autogazette. Less than three months later we meet Ingenlath again, this time in Florence.

Polestar 1 costs 155,000 euros

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The Swedes are now presenting their hybrid coupé here. It is the car with which the brand wants to take off into e-mobility. The Polestar 1 paves the way for what is to come. First and foremost, there is the Polestar 2, a purely battery-electric vehicle with a range of 500 kilometers and an output of 408 hp. It will come onto the market in Germany at a price of 58,800 euros. At a later date there will also be a model of the Polestar 2 for less than 40,000 euros. You then enter into competition with a Tesla Model 3.

In any case, the Polestar 2, in contrast to the two-door hybrid coupe, is the car with which the Swedes want to go into volume. Ingenlath does not like to give exact sales figures, he prefers only to speak of mass production. It becomes more specific with Polestar 1. Over a period of three years, only 1500 vehicles are to be built by him, 500 per year of production. With a price of 155,000 euros, the hybrid coupé is the "extreme of a niche vehicle" (Ingenlath).

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But this niche vehicle is particularly important for the Volvo subsidiary. With it, the brand is preparing for the launch of the Polestar 2, not only optimizing production at the plant in Chengdu, China, but also creating the conditions for market entry. National companies are currently being founded in the various markets. In Germany it is based in Cologne. It is no coincidence that China was chosen as the Polestar production site. Because the country is not only the headquarters of the parent company Geely, but is also the most important sales market for the brand. This is followed by the USA and Europe.

Inspiration from the Volvo P188

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But can the Polestar 1 do what Ingenlath expects of it? Can he combine pleasure and sustainability? He can. First and foremost, there's the design: this Polestar 1 just looks good. No frills, no unsightly edges, clear lines. People like to look at this car. The Swedes have deliberately avoided gimmicks. “We decided on a classic design,” says Ingenlath. They were inspired by the Volvo P1800, a design icon. Not a bad decision.

In any case, the Polestar 1 borrows a lot from Volvo: Like the S90, for example, it is not only based on the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), but also has controls and the same navigation and information display in the interior as you know from Volvo. For reasons of cost, it made no sense to develop a new system for the Polestar 1, says Ingenlath. But that will be different with the Polestar 2 when looking at the navigation system - an Android system is used here.

Torque of 1000 Nm

However, this does not detract from the attractiveness of the Polestar 1. It not only looks good, but also ensures a lot of driving pleasure with its performance data. The 2.0 liter four-cylinder turbo gasoline engine, together with the two electric motors on the rear axle, provides 609 hp and a torque of 1000 Newton meters. This already looks promising on paper, but feels even better on the road. A little pressure on the gas pedal is enough to force you into the sports seats. Up to 100 km / h it takes just 4.2 seconds, from 80 to 120 km / h it is 2.3 seconds, the top speed is reached at 250 km / h. In pure electric mode, 160 km / h are possible. The battery has a capacity of 34 kWh.

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It enables a purely electric range of up to 125 kilometers. This value seems to be quite realistic, as the test drives on motorways and country roads around Florence showed. That brings us to sustainability: If you want, you can move the Polestar 1 purely electrically, if it is in pure mode. Then this hybrid coupé only drives electrically. But the Polestar 2 can also do other things: under the four driving modes Pure, Hybrid, AWD there is also the power mode. Then the hybrid coupé makes all of its power available. Then there is no more fun and, above all, sustainability.

Still, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) make sense for Ingenlath. The discussion about this technology is being conducted too dogmatically anyway, he thinks. For him, PHEVs represent the best solution on the way to purely battery-electric vehicles. Even with the Polestar 1, you can experience the advantages of electric driving to a large extent - and with a range of well over 100 kilometers. If that's not enough, you just have to wait for the Polestar 2. It will be on the market at the end of the second quarter of next year - and will then cost significantly less than the hybrid coupé. The Polestar 2 can now be reserved for a deposit of 1000 euros. Those who take this route are also guaranteed a delivery in 2020.

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