Polestar plans hi-po hybrids for Volvo

Volvo's performance partner Polestar has been inspired by the latest generation of hypercars from McLaren and Porsche.

Polestar boss Christian Dahl, in Australia for last weekend's Bathurst 1000, said the company's future lies with four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engines paired with performance-biased electric powertrains.

Polestar has made no secret of its plans to drop its current 258kW six-cylinder turbo engine in favour of a new high-performance four-cylinder turbo unit based on Volvo's latest Drive-E family of engines.

Volvo unveiled what it called a "Performance Drive-E Powertrain Concept" last week, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engines capable of 335kW developed with Polestar's help.

While that engine still needs further development to be production ready Dahl is already prepared for Polestar's next move - hybrid technology. But like the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari LaFerrari, he wants the electric motors to provide a performance boost, as well as a fuel economy benefit.

"When you combine combustion engine and electrification, I mean look at the McLaren P1 or the 918 Porsche," he said. "At the moment that technology is hypercars but of course it will come down in the future. It's such a great opportunity."

He added: "When you have a hybrid you don't need to carry 400 kilos of batteries, you carry the amount you need. You can be really clean in the city centres and you can use it for performance in active driving. I think the technology is young but it's developing really fast."

Dahl believes Polestar's youth as a brand will allow it to be well placed to take advantage of the new trend towards hybrid performance cars. He believes the hybrid path offers more benefits than the increasing amount of performance-oriented diesels.

"We are quite a young brand, we have an open book to what we want to do, but personally I see more opportunities with electrification in the future [than diesel], he said. "It's a more interesting area to go to.

"I think the future of the combustion engine is what the Drive-E is - petrol, direct injection, small volume and turbo. But then to add electrification into the future to get that extra grunt in the bottom and balance everything in the chassis with electrification, I think is the way forward.

"I mean from BMW and M say a M [model] will never be this or never be that, because they have a 40 year history and the customer has an expectation on what an M is. I think we have a much more white paper because we're so young. So we can see what the best technology is and go for that.

"But at the moment I'm more excited about electrification than diesel."