Volvo produces some very good looking cars.
We at Autocar recognise that and duly awarded Thomas Ingenlath, Volvo’s former senior vice president of design, our design hero award at the Autocar Awards earlier this year.
Cast your mind back a few years, then, to the Volvo Concept Coupé, revealed in 2013 at the Frankfurt motor show. Looks familiar, doesn’t it? That’s because Volvo appears to be putting it into production under its newly standalone performance-car brand as the Polestar 1, due to be revealed (more than it already has been) tomorrow.
Upon its reveal in its previous life as a Volvo, the car elicited much fanfare from enthusiasts and media alike, and was arguably the beginning of Volvo’s post-Ford design renaissance we’re seeing today. It was revealed as a plug-in hybrid with 395bhp and 442lb ft of torque - a set-up that wouldn’t be out of place in the Polestar. Give it a bit more horsepower and it will meet Polestar’s reported 600bhp target, unless the brand goes all-electric, as some reports suggest.
With Ingenlath now heading up Polestar as CEO, it’s likely that he will have only lightly tweaked his Concept Coupé baby for production. This is where we’ll finally find out what the Concept Coupé, and Polestar as a solo brand, are all about.
It’s a brave move from Volvo, whose success was built on its awareness of parent company Geely’s ruthlessness - a lack of profit would render it out on its ear. So a luxury sub-brand from an already very well-known marque could go in the direction of other luxury spin-offs, which are at best plush oddities and, at worst, struggling players.
Volvo has tackled the premium world head-on with its current line-up of competent cars, though, so entering the above-premium domain of Porsche, Maserati and Tesla is just one challenge further.
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Volvo Concept Coupé shown in Tokyo
Polestar plots 600bhp coupé for inaugural model
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great concept car
i love this car and want to see it in my home