The Polestar 2 will use a four-door liftback body style.
Polestar
The first all-electric Polestar — and indeed, the first all-electric Volvo Cars product — will be launched later this year. Yes, shortly after the Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid coupe finally hits the road, we’ll see the Polestar 2, previewed here by a not-so-revealing overhead view of the car’s trunk.
Polestar says the 2 will use a “four-door ‘liftback'” design, according to an email distributed Thursday. I’ve seen the final design for the Tesla Model 3-rivaling Polestar 2, and while I can’t tell you exactly what it looks like, I’ll point out that my choice to illustrate this story with photos of Volvo’s 2016 40.2 Concept is a deliberate one. Polestar executives already confirmed the 2 will ride on an electrified version of Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform that underpins the XC40 crossover.
Polestar tells me the 2 “will be revealed in the coming weeks,” and that the final specs will be announced soon. For now, the company estimates 300 miles of range and about 400 horsepower. It’s unclear if that 300-ish mile rating will be under the European or US test cycles — an important distinction, as the two vary greatly. (A Jaguar I-Pace, for example, is rated at 292 miles of range under the European NEDC regimen, but gets a US EPA rating of 234 miles.)
The Polestar 2 will use an electrified version of the scalable platform that debuted in the Volvo 40.2 concept in 2016.
Volvo
As I learned earlier this year, the Polestar 2 will be priced around $50,000 — “in the Tesla Model 3 price range,” according to the automaker’s email — and will be available via a Care by Volvo-like subscription service, though the company says it “will honor/take cash sales.” The four-door EV will also see the first implementation of Volvo Cars’ new Google Android-based HMI, with a new infotainment interface.
In an earlier interview, Polestar executives told me the company initially expects to move about 60,000 examples of the 2 annually. In 2018, Tesla moved a total of more than 145,000 Model 3s.
After the Polestar 2 launches, we’ll see the electric Polestar 3, which will ride on Volvo’s second-generation SPA 2 architecture, expected to underpin the next-generation XC90 in 2021. In the meantime, look for the Polestar brand to officially hit the road with the 1 in the coming months.