Volvo’s Polestar to launch electric performance car later this year: Report

Polestar, the performance brand of the Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo, will roll out its first electric performance car by the end of this year, a report said on Monday.

"With Volvo cementing its position rivalling premium brands, Geely wants Polestar to take a sportier role within its group. It wants to replicate what Mercedes' AMG brand has done in producing its own bespoke AMG cars as well as modified Mercedes-AMG models," Auto Express reported on Monday.

Owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Volvo already has some plug-in hybrids in its range and supplies the electric powertrains to London Taxi Company's TX5 black taxi model.

According to the report, Volvo will use Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) and Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platforms for making the new electric Polestars. A car based on the SPA platform, which underpins the SUVs Volvo XC60 and XC90 as well as the V90 estate and S90 saloon models, is likely to break cover first some time this year, the report added.

Volvo acquired the performance brand Polestar in 2015, and continues to make hot cars under the blue badge. "Polestar would not be a high-performance petrol brand or model", and would "move from petrol to electric", Volvo boss Hakan Samuelsson had said at the Geneva Motor Show in March. By electric, he meant "both plug-in hybrid and pure electric".