Volvo News: Polestar To Become a Standalone Brand, Focus On High-Performance EVs

[William Maley]

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Volvo's performance arm, Polestar will be spun off into its own separate brand that will focus on high-performance electric vehicles. The announcement made today confirms a rumorpile report from last week about Polestar working on a lineup of high-performance electric vehicles.

“Polestar will be a credible competitor in the emerging global market for high performance electrified cars. With Polestar, we are able to offer electrified cars to the world’s most demanding, progressive drivers in all market segments,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.

The brand will share “technological and engineering” efforts with Volvo. Polestar will continue to offer upgrades for Volvo cars, under the new Polestar Engineered label.

Plans for future products will be announced sometime in the fall.

Source: Volvo
Press Release is on Page 2

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Polestar announces new management team to develop electrified performance brand for Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has announced that Polestar, its performance car arm, is to become a new separately-branded electrified global high performance car company, marking the latest stage in Volvo’s ongoing transformation.
 
In order to drive the development of the brand, Volvo Cars also announced today that Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo, will assume the position of Chief Executive Officer at Polestar. Mr Ingenlath has been the inspiration behind Volvo’s award winning design renaissance in recent years.
 
“Thomas heading up the Polestar organisation shows our commitment to establishing a truly differentiated stand-alone brand within the Volvo Car Group,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.
 
Mr Ingenlath will be joined at Polestar by Jonathan Goodman, who will become Chief Operating Officer. Mr Goodman moves from his position as Senior Vice President Corporate Communication at Volvo Cars.
 
“With 25 years of commercial experience in the automotive industry, Jonathan is ideally placed to provide operational experience alongside Thomas’s vision, building on the experienced management team that will drive the Polestar brand forwards” said Mr Samuelsson.
 
“Polestar will be a credible competitor in the emerging global market for high performance electrified cars. With Polestar, we are able to offer electrified cars to the world’s most demanding, progressive drivers in all market segments.”
 
Volvo Cars acquired 100 per cent of Polestar Performance in July 2015, having worked together in motorsport since 1996. In the future, Polestar will offer Polestar branded cars that will no longer carry a Volvo logo, as well as optimisation packages for Volvo’s range of cars under the Polestar Engineered brand.
 
Polestar will enjoy specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefit from significant economies of scale as a result of its connection to Volvo. These synergies will allow it to design, develop and build world beating electrified high performance cars.
 
Mr Ingenlath said: “I am really excited to take up the challenge of establishing this exciting brand, developing a fabulous portfolio of bespoke products and channelling the passion we have throughout the Polestar team. The next chapter in Polestar’s history is just beginning.”
  
Polestar will make further announcements about its products, industrialization and commercial plans in the autumn.  

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[David]

 This is AWESOME! I thin this will benefit Volvo even more than just making Volvo Polestar performance ICE auto's.

Very excited to see what they do. You know China's policy to deal with their smog is a main reason for this along with China owning Volvo / Polestar.

Excited, 

Wonder what dollar level they are going after first? $50-100K first, Higher or lower? 

[smk4565]

Why don't they make Volvo electric cars?  I wonder how many will buy a Polestar over a Tesla, Mercedes, Audi or BMW.  That is a tall ask from a start up brand

[balthazar]

I'm not positive I've ever heard the name 'Polestar' before this thread.
Althought at least it's a name, it doesn't seem very graceful.

Perhaps 'Polecat' is a bit snazzier.

[David]

43 minutes ago, balthazar said:

I'm not positive I've ever heard the name 'Polestar' before this thread.
Althought at least it's a name, it doesn't seem very graceful.

Perhaps 'Polecat' is a bit snazzier.

Polestar was known as Cyan Racing and has heritage before becoming Polestar in 2010.

https://www.polestar.com/intl/

Good info, but they do have a performance / racing heritage.

[balthazar]

Polestar builds the S60 and V60 Polestar, 367 hp performance road cars

Did Volvo really need to buy a racing entity to offer a measly 367 HP on their cars??

[A Horse With No Name]

For some reason every time I read Polestar I think Pole dancer...

[David]

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

For some reason every time I read Polestar I think Pole dancer...

At least you have to give the China Parent company credit for having some awesome autoshow models for the Polestar versions at the Shanghai auto show.

[A Horse With No Name]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

At least you have to give the China Parent company credit for having some awesome autoshow models for the Polestar versions at the Shanghai auto show.

Ohhh absolutely.

[regfootball]

don't confuse with pollstar.com

[ocnblu]

LOL what a joke.  No one buys them now... this will only seal their fate.

[A Horse With No Name]

The widely followed J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Initial Quality Study was released recently. Among the 33 brands measured, Volvo ranked 31st. It is a stinging rebuke for a company that is trying to position itself as a luxury alternative to BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Audi.

Volvo really cannot be positioned as a turnaround, even if its quality ratings were strong. Its sales through the first five months of the year were down 4.5% to 26,802. At the current rate, it sells only 6,000 cars a month in the United States. Most of its sales come from three models. About 20% are the S60 mid-priced sedan, nearly 30% are the XC60 sport utility vehicle and 35% are the new XC90. The XC90 is a luxury SUV with a starting price of $45,750, which can rise well over $100,000 for the “Excellence” model. Perhaps Volvo should not keep the excellence badge for just one model.

Volvo’s dealer network, marketing budget and small model lineup cannot possibly keep up with juggernauts like BMW and Mercedes. Each has model lineups that are many times Volvo’s. Each has been among the modest widely regarded, high-quality auto brands in the United States.

Initial quality in this iconic study was measured by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles during the first 90 days of ownership, with a lower score reflecting higher quality. In this year’s study, quality improved across seven of the eight categories measured, with 27 of the 33 brands in the study improving their quality compared with 2016.

http://247wallst.com/autos/2017/06/2...uality-rating/

Keep building crap cars in China and see how that works out for you, boys....!