Volvo’s Electrifying Future Is Close
Ever since Elon Musk introduced Tesla to the world, we went from doubting his visions to respecting his accomplishments. And today, thanks to the more open-minded and adventurous industry, more and more car manufacturers are opting to facilitate electric car developments to meet with the market demand.
Polestar, sprouting out of Volvo, will spearhead the group’s interest in electric performance vehicles. And what you see here is the Polestar 1 – a sleek and stunning electric sportscar that’s due for production mid-2019.
As an Electric Performance Car, Polestar 1 is capable of travelling up to 150km on pure electric power. It is by far the longest full electric range of any hybrid car on the market, setting a new benchmark for both Volvo and Polestar. With support of an Integrated Starter Generator, the full-electric motor that drives both rear wheels is able to unleash 218 electric horses to power up the Polestar 1.
Its electric motor is combined with a 2.0-litre, four cylinder Volvo Drive-E engine, thus giving the Polestar 1 600 Swedish horses and 1,000Nm of torque to roam seamlessly, which is simply absurd! These are supercar stats, and one can only start imagining how quickly the Polestar 1 would complete the century sprint.
Another amazing fact is, major parts of the Polestar 1 is made from carbon fibre, a material usually found only in supercars. Lightweight materials give the car three significant advantages – weight reduction by 230kg, increase in torsional stiffness by 45% and lowers the centre of gravity. All these attributes will eventually provide significant driving pleasure and comfort for both the driver and passenger.
Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar said on the hybrid: ” Most electric cars are fast – that’s a product of the attributes of an electric motor. However, for Polestar, performance is far more holistic than just straight line speed. It’s about acceleration, of course, but it’s also about cornering, braking, suspension control, chassis feedback and steering feel. This is what Polestar calls Progressive Performance.”
The success of Polestar’s invention doesn’t just stop at Polestar 1. All future Polestar cars will feature a fully electric powertrain; the mid-size fully electric Polestar 2 production will start later in 2019, and the Polestar 3 SUV, which is at its final design stage, will be a battery electric vehicle (BEV).
More than just an introduction of Polestar and its highly impressive electric car, this is also a strong sign that we are leaping into the sci-fi future that some of us grew up dreaming about.