Volvo’s Polestar to develop hi-po hybrids

Volvo's newly aligned partner in performance, Polestar, will focus resources on producing fast yet efficient hybrid models, steering away from the large engine strategies employed by Mercedes-AMG and BMW's M-division.

Speaking with Drive at the launch of the XC90 this week, Volvo international product manager Lars Lagstrom said there was scope for Polestar to rival electric superpower Tesla with its future performance models.

Volvo announced last month that it had purchased the Polestar brand outright and would take the independent tuner's work in-house for the future. The acquisition follows extensive work previously undertaken by Polestar on a new 'triple charged' 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine capable of 335kW. The engine uses two parallel turbochargers combined with an electric turbo compressor for maximum performance with minimised turbo lag.

"We know Polestar do unique high performance cars. We're not targeting, AMG or M-Series BMWs," Lagstrom said.

"Volvo is a big producer of plug-in hybrids, we work a lot with plug-in hybrids so we would go into a different road than the other brands."

The first recipient of the Polestar strategy will be the newly released XC90 SUV, specifically the T8 hybrid. It uses a supercharged and turbocharged 235kW four-cylinder petrol engine which is mated with a 60kW electric motor to bring a 0-100km/h time of 5.9 seconds in standard guise.

A Polestar fillip would hasten that time, while also bringing important handling and grip enhancements.

"With the new T8 plug-in hybrid, we know what the likes of Tesla has done with that electric performance," Lagstrom said.

"It would make sense for XC90 to be the first recipient, but I don't know what's happening on that front."

In October, Polestar boss Christian Dahl told Drive the new triple charged Polestar engine was being developed using lessons learnt on the brand's World Touring Car engine - specifically its induction system.

Currently Polestar offers engine performance upgrades across the entire Volvo range, but only the S60 sedan and V60 wagon has had the full Polestar treatment - brakes, suspension, aerodynamics, interior, etc - optimised by the company. The fledging tuning division soon wants to add the V40 hatch, the XC60 and new XC90 SUVs to that fully-enhanced range.