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Polestar’s first car could be a unique plug-in hybrid coupe – report

Last month, Volvo Cars announced Polestar, its tuning division, will be spun off into its own distinct brand for "electrified global high performance" cars.


Although the newly liberated brand will still tune Volvo vehicles and market performance kits for them, it will also be "developing a fabulous portfolio of bespoke products".

Autocar understands Polestar is mulling one or two bespoke for its separately branded range. One of these is said to be a coupe with around 445kW (600hp) of power, and a large amount of weight saving carbon-fibre.

A concept for the new Polestar coupe could debut as soon as the 2017 Frankfurt motor show, which takes place in September. It's thought the coupe will be based on Volvo's SPA platform, which currently underpins the XC60, S90, V90 and XC90.


Above: Volvo XC60.

Motivation for the Polestar coupe will reportedly come from a heavily revised version of the T8 plug-in hybrid drivetrain, which features a 2.0-litre supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, and an electric motor.

If the 445kW target is real and achieved, it would be big jump up from the 300kW/640Nm currently developed by the regular T8 drivetrain, and 314kW from Polestar's "optimised" version.

To get to the impressive 445kW number, the T8 driven may be given a larger, more powerful electric motor, which would sacrifice range and fuel economy for extra dollops of performance.

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