Polestar Is Building Its First Prototype Cars in Sweden

The Volvo spin-off brand will use these pre-production Polestar 1 models for road testing and crash safety assessment.

byTalon Homer|
Polestar Is Building Its First Prototype Cars in Sweden
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Polestar, the Volvo electric luxury offshoot has been teasing its first production car, known simply as Polestar 1. First revealed in 2017, the company has touted the Polestar 1 as a 600-horsepower hybrid coupe and It's now a step closer to fulfilling that promise. The manufacturer released a statement confirming assembly of 34 prototype cars. These pre-production models will be developed and refined by Polestar into the final car available for sale.

“The assembly of the VP cars means that the Polestar 1 has taken its next step towards production,” says Thomas Ingenlath, chief executive officer of Polestar. “This first batch of 34 cars will enable our engineers to tune the finer details of the car, ensuring that the Polestar 1 is perfect when we start to produce customer cars in the middle of next year.”

The production version of Polestar 1 is expected to carry a 2.0 liter four-cylinder engine and dual electric motors to put out a combined 600 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels. The car is also planned to have an electric-only range of more than 90 miles, and sell for $155,000.

Polestar states that the 34 cars, being produced in a specialized facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, will take part in both road and crash safety testing. The prototype assembly is "largely being done by hand" and new high-tech tooling has been developed to produce Polestar 1's carbon fiber body. Techniques learned during this process will be used to teach workers how to efficiently produce the final version of the car at the Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China.

Lessons learned during the development and manufacturing of the Polestar 1 will be used to produce more practical electric and hybrid powertrains throughout the Volvo and Polestar lineup.

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