Polestar 1 review: Sweden makes a £140k GT car

By topgear, 26 November 2019

OVERVIEW - What is it?
This is the first car from Volvo’s luxurious, future-thinking offshoot, Polestar. Not to mention the owner of the most straightforward name imaginable. The 1 is likely to be the most expensive car the firm will ever build, and the only hybrid. The cars which follow it – including, predictably, the Polestar 2 – will be fully electric.

How expensive? Um, £139,000 (approx. RM749,310). Which alongside its power (600bhp), weight (2350kg) and exclusivity (only 1500 will be sold globally), pits it against the Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes S-Class Coupe and BMW 8 Series on paper. Not to mention lower rungs of the Aston Martin and McLaren ladders, and the upper reaches of the Porsche 911 range. A tough sell for a posh Volvo?

 

Well, much as that’s what it resembles – this 2013 concept car specifically – we need to think of the 1 as something a wee bit different. It bucks the trend for air suspension or adaptive dampers. It sends more power to the front wheels than the rears. The brakes are from Akebono, the same people who made the McLaren P1’s. Aside from the bumpers, the whole body is carbon, and so is the car’s upper structure. And the dampers it does have are manually adjustable, via knobs on the damper turrets.

Part racecar, then? Nope, a GT, but differently done. It’s based on a shortened version of the Volvo S90’s  platform, but with roughly 200mm chopped out of the wheelbase and a further 200mm removed from behind the rear wheels. To make up for that, additional carbon bracing has been used, boosting overall chassis stiffness by 45 per cent.

Underneath the bonnet sits a 2.0-litre four-cylinder that’s both turbocharged and supercharged. That’s borrowed from the XC90 T8, and delivers 308bhp (unless you’re in America, where lucky owners have 326bhp). It drives the front wheels alone, boosted by a 68bhp electric motor on the crankshaft to act as starter motor, torque fill for gear changes and the like.

The rear wheels are driven by a pair of electric motors, each with their own planetary gearset, permitting complete torque vectoring. Together they develop a further 232bhp, drawing power from a 34kWh, 342kg battery pack mounted in a T-shape down the car’s centre line and across behind the rear seats. Maximum system outputs are 600bhp and 999Nm, and on electricity alone, Polestar claims a 150km range.

Want some more titbits? The carbon bodywork allows the creation of edges twice as sharp as steel, and Polestar has deliberately given the 1 cues from the iconic Volvo P1800 (notice the downward curve of the shoulder line at the rear?). It’s designed to be an attention-grabbing, flag-waving, standard-bearer for the Polestar brand, just done in a typically understated Swedish way. We happen to think it’s one of the most handsome new cars released in a very long time.

DRIVING - What is it like on the road?
The brief of a GT car is to be easy-going, placid transport. The sort of thing you can just climb into and, 500 miles (804km) later, feel like no time has passed. The Polestar 1 – on first impression – isn’t the car for that job, with a bewildering number of driving modes to choose from depending on how much hybridisation you want. And that’s before you get to its dampers which adjust through 22 clicks.

But then if you just leave it in hybrid mode and drive without any real vigour it’s as effortless as cars get. It’s easier to see out of than many of its rivals – that saloon car-esque shape helps – and everything is just so smooth. Alright, the ride’s a little firm, but then it is on Volvos and, as we’ll get to, it’s something you can adjust if you have the inclination.

 

You can drive it in electric-only ‘Pure’ mode and you have a 150kph maximum and good acceleration. We know this because we pulled on to a motorway thinking I was in ‘Hybrid’ mode and enjoying the power, only to realise there was no engine noise. Bring the turbo- and supercharged engine to life by switching to either ‘Hybrid’ or ‘Power’ via a rotary controller on the console and this is a deeply rapid car. Not quite Tesla fast, but good for a 0-100kph time of four seconds or so.

The engine doesn’t sound as interesting as you might hope, but stick it in a high gear at low revs and you get a good bassy grumble – and far more performance than you were expecting as the electric motors give their all immediately. The gearbox, an eight-speed automatic, is vice-free and well integrated into the drivetrain.

But it’s the balance of this performance that’s most impressive. Here is a hybrid that’s not dominated by electric or petrol alone, but instead hits a happier medium – there’s plenty of action on offer from both (and enough range to make electric only commuting entirely viable).

Better yet, the torque vectoring is really noticeable, helping mitigate the effects of all that power going through the front wheels. Hit the power mid-corner and rather than understeer, the electric motors apportion their torque, sending more to the outside rear, less to the inside and managing the traction so the car feels far more neutral. You’re going very fast before understeer gets a look in. In fact, you can actually detect the outside wheel over-speeding, using its force to help rotate the car inwards. It’s an interesting sensation.

So, those dampers. You could, if you so desired, soften off the front completely, and stiffen up the rear, just to see what happens. As standard it ships with the dampers set 9 at the front, 10 at the back, with suggestions in the owner’s manual for how you might like to run it softer or harder. But still: manual dampers. And while you adjust the fronts on the damper turrets under the bonnet, to get to the rears you either need pipe cleaner arms to reach around the back of the wheels, or a trolley jack.

Not only is this not exactly practical, but who the hell is going to bother? The Polestar 1 is a luxury GT, the embodiment of effortless motoring. So why not give it dampers that can be adjusted at the press of a button inside? We suspect it’s been done as a talking point, something to set the 1 apart. They’re made by Öhlins, long-time Polestar racing collaborator, and I suspect these are very, very expensive. Two reasons: first, Volvo has chosen to decorate the brake calipers, seatbelts and dust caps in the same famous Ohlins gold colour and second, what they do to the car is genuinely impressive.

It’s the comfort/control bandwidth the car has that’s downright amazing. It does roll a little, but its roll that telegraphs what the car is up to, how hard it’s having to work. It compresses progressively, rebounds equally smoothly and maintains body control so well you’d never guess the 1 weighed anything like 2.35 tonnes. Joachim Rydholm, its chief development engineer, reckons he’s tested around 80 separate front damper tunes and 115 rear over the last two years. And yes, he had to tune the dampers in every single one of their 22 settings.

His hard work means the 1 behaves differently to anything else in its class. It’s more connected than most GTs, without being hard. It’s not cossetting, though. The Polestar doesn’t sigh along like a Bentley, inhaling and exhaling deep whooshes of air. This is a tenser, more tightly controlled intake and release, there’s less travel in the suspension. More like that BMW 8-Series, but somehow gentler, less rigid in its actions.

What we’re dealing with here is a different way of doing a GT. It’s more active, alert and involving than something like a Continental GT, but still more traditional in its remit than the more overly sporting McLaren GT which costs a little more. The Polestar 1 treads an interesting line between the two, with a side order of intrigue courtesy of its electrified powertrain. It’s pricy, but there’s nothing quite like it.

ON THE INSIDE - Layout, finish and space
It’s very Volvo inside: the switchgear, touchscreen and general architecture are all overly familiar from saloon cars costing around a quarter of the price. To us, this isn’t much of an issue, as Polestar’s more prosaic relative has been absolutely nailing its interior design of late.

This is still a cabin in keeping with the car’s image, too. Compare it to a similar BMW or Mercedes and it’s competitive. What it’s not, is bespoke and hand-crafted like a Bentley. Inside there are only two colour choices – dark grey or beige, with options kept to a minimum by high standard equipment levels: Bowers and Wilkins stereo, Nappa leather and the like.

You get more choice outside: exterior trim in chrome or black, wheels with three different finishes and five paint colours, each of which is available in either gloss or matt finishes (the latter a £5,000 [approx. RM26,954] option). The roof is darkened, laminated glass that cuts out 95 per cent of UV – there’s no other option and it does without a sliding cover.

This is good for headroom up front, but the crossbeam at the back sits above rear passenger’s heads. Factor in the very restricted knee/legroom and this is not a car suitable for squishing teenage children in the back. But it is a light, airy place to spend time and there’s an overwhelming sense of calm inside – a Swedish speciality – that complements the whisper-quiet hybrid and electric modes perfectly.

Polestar 1
Polestar 1

You’re not going to get four people’s luggage in the boot, by the way. Doubtless a set of golf clubs will fit sideways, but the boot doubles as a display case for a lot of orange wiring. This is the Polestar’s second engine bay of course, so it’s chosen to put the batteries under a clear cover. A cool talking point or the naffest thing on Earth? Our team is split. Compared to the subtly handsome, crisply styled exterior, it’s a stark plot twist to see the electrification screaming out at you. We hoped Polestars were the plug-in cars for people who don’t like to shout about it.

OWNING - Running costs and reliability
The Polestar 1 is going to be a rare beast. Only 1,500 cars are being built in total, of which around 650 are expected to go to China. The others will be split between a further eight global markets (USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Netherlands Belgium and the UK). Live somewhere else? You’re going to be investigating import regulations if you want one. It’s also left-hand drive only. Which affects us Brits but no-one else.

They’re being built at a rate of 15 cars a week at Polestar’s Chengdu plant in China. Equipment levels, as mentioned already, are comprehensive, and the exclusivity – plus the fact it’s the first car from an exciting new brand – help justify the £139,000 (approx. RM749,310) cost.

Quick tip: when you sign on the line, get Polestar to include a clause that guarantees a lifetime supply of valve caps. Polestar took the 1 to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018. The brake and damper-matching gold caps were perpetually thieved. Either that or you remove them yourself every time you park. But that’s neither becoming nor luxurious.

VERDICT
The Polestar 1 is a very interesting and hard to box car. Superficially, it’s a GT car to rival a BMW 8 Series, but has a price, weight and power figure that puts it in league with the Bentley Continental GT. Ultimately, it’s quite unique.

The combined petrol-electric powerplant has a generous nature – this is not a mealy-mouthed hybrid desperately dodging around emission legislation, but instead a good, sensible, powerful, well-executed solution for a luxury GT. It has the ability to get itself around happily on electric, and when you want a proper hit of torque you can fire up the supercharged, turbocharged 2.0-litre and take off.

And it’s an interesting car to drive, too. More dynamic than we’re used to from the Swedes, cleverer in its construction, nimbler and more controlled than you’d ever assume a 2,350kg coupe could be. Not the most relaxed car in its class, but its alternative way of doing things is actually rather beguiling.

Not the softest nor the sportiest GT car, but probably the most interesting

 

FOR AGAINST

An interesting and rather beguiling take on a luxury GT

Left hand drive only, £139,000
SCORE 8/10

 

Polestar 1