After revealing its luxury hybrid grand tourer in October last year, Polestar is now starting to put the first pieces in place. The company announced today that it has kicked off production of the very first Polestar 1 verification prototypes, with customer models expected sometime in 2019.
The two-door Polestar 1 luxury GT is the first model to wear the badge of Volvo's dedicated performance arm, and will pack 600 hp (447 kW) and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque. The battery offers an electric-only range of 150 km (93 mi), which Volvo claims to be the farthest of any hybrid car in the world.
Pre-orders opened up back in March, but these first 34 cars won't be headed for the garages of the first few to lay down a deposit. Rather, these verification prototypes will be used for things like crash-testing, weather testing and on road evaluations.
Still, as the very first car under the Volvo umbrella to "explore" carbon fiber construction, the production gives Polestar the opportunity to iron out any kinks in its process, which is carried out largely by hand (for now). Production is taking place at a specialized facility in Sweden, with production of the first customer models to take place at the new Polestar Production center in China.
"The assembly of the VP cars means that the Polestar 1 has taken its next step towards production," says Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar. "This first batch of 34 cars will enable our engineers to tune the finer details of the car, ensuring that the Polestar 1 is perfect when we start to produce customer cars in the middle of next year."
Polestar revealed in April that the Polestar 1 will carry a price tag of US$155,000, €155,000 in Europe and 1.45 million RMB in China, but that kind of outlay won't be the only way to get behind the wheel. It will also offer catch-all subscription models that cover all costs like insurance, maintenance and the lease. A full reveal of the Polestar 1 is expected in early 2019.
Source: Polestar