Volvo S60 Polestar : next-generation confirmed as turbo four, but won’t rival BMW M3

Volvo vice-president Lex Kerssemakers said he is happy with Polestar's work on the current-generation S60 and V60 sedan, admitting that the Ford Mondeo-based platform wasn't designed for a high-performance model such as the Polestar while promising the next model will be more resolved.

"It will be," Kerssamakers said, nodding his head to the suggestion that a new model needs to have more integrated suspension modes.

Currently if S60 Polestar owners want to make the expensive Ohlins suspension softer or firmer they need to manually adjust each damper underneath the car.

"The SPA platform will make that much easier," he said, referring to the ability to make a more cohesive Polestar product from the modular underpinnings developed by the Swedish brand.

The vice president also confirmed there will "absolutely" be a next-generation S60 Polestar built on SPA - the same basic parts that also underpin the new XC90.

"It's very simple," he said.

"We started with Polestar again after we were totally convinced with our Drive-E engines that we covered the environmental part. You need to have very fuel efficient cars in Volvo. You need to have that, or you lose your credibility as Volvo.

"Once we have it now, now it's time to do cooperation with Polestar and make 350 horsepowers in S60/V60."

On the one hand, however, Kerssemakers argued that the XC90 large premium SUV needs to stay away from being too dynamic-focused, yet at the same time with S60 and V60 he is keen on Volvo being more hardcore.

"It's no problem because there's an audience for it," he said.

"We feel very comfortable with that. And it's sports, and it shows that Volvo is not boring cars. Even the standard cars are not boring cars, but it helps that you have a very dynamic car.

"So yes we will continue with Polestar in the future to tune our cars to decent horsepowers [but] in the future will be four-cylinders."

Volvo are currently in what the 2IC called "the definition phase" of S60 Polestar development - outlining exactly what the car is and where it will be placed.

But it has recently revealed an ultra high-performance 'triple turbo' four-cylinder concept engine that could pave the way for a future Polestar Volvo.

"The world is pretty small out there with these competitor cars, but we'll see," Kerssemakers postured.

"I'm not sure yet if we are going to chase [BMW] M3 as an example ... probably not, we say this is a Volvo and you have 350 horsepowers with an Ohlins suspension which is the top of the car industry, and this is what we offer.

"If you want to compare it, compare it, but I want to stay out of that rat race."