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This Is Polestar’s 600-HP, Four-Cylinder Swedish GT

A couple weeks ago, Volvo partially revealed the first car from Polestar in its new position as an independent, eco-friendly subsidiary. Now we finally have all the details (except how much it’s gonna cost), and to be honest, it looks pretty dang perfect.

On the outside, the new Polestar is standard Volvo design in a coupe form factor–thus, I think it’s one of the single best-looking cars on the market today. The overall impression is robust yet restrained, with gently curved slab sides and Volvo’s stellar corporate face including the Thor’s Hammer DRLs and slightly dished grille.

As is the current fashion, the door handles sit flush with the sheetmetal; this undoubtedly serves an aerodynamic purpose (and looks really cool). The two-tone wheels have a slight turbine feel about them. The powerful and sleek rear end is beautifully judged too. It really is a wonderful-looking thing.

But under the carbon fiber skin is where things really get interesting. Polestar’s powertrains reflect Volvo’s unwavering commitment to hybrids and EVs, and as such, the 1 is a hybrid. The two electric motors give 218 hp and a respectable electric range of 93 miles, and that’s very nice; where the party really starts, though, is that engine.

It may only be a 2.0L four, but it produces around 382 horsepower, which is approaching the very limits of what current engine tech can squeeze out of such a dinky motor. This combines for an ample total of 600 hp and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque. Even with the hybrid system’s tremendous weight, the Polestar should really scoot.

The car is also peppered with some very charming Swedish touches. There’s brogue-style detailing on the rear seats, a Polestar logo is projected onto the glass roof at all times, and the trunk displays several important yellow plugs so you still have something cool to show people when you buy a four-cylinder supercar.

Which brings us to the price: it doesn’t have one. Instead, the Polestar 1 will only be offered through a Porsche Passport-like subscription system called Care by Volvo, which includes things like maintenance and renting additional Volvos as part of one monthly payment. The XC40 will be the first car to be offered this way and will cost about $850/mo, but the Polestar is likely to cost a pretty penny more than that. For reference, Porsche’s system costs between $2,000 and $3,000 per month. Yikes.

A Volvo exec let slip that selling the car to customers outright isn’t completely out of the question, but we only know that it would cost at least a hundred grand. So get out your pocketbooks; the Swedes are officially cool again.

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