Jan Hetfleisch
Hybrid cars don’t have to be boring appliances. Sure, cars like the Toyota Prius were designed solely to get people and their stuff from one place to another as efficiently as possible. But today, some of the world’s fastest exotics from around the world – including the Ferrari F80 halo car and the scorching Lamborghini Temerario – have powertrain packages that combine a roaring gasoline-fueled engine with a compact electric motor and battery pack. Electric torque is real, and when combined with a screaming gas engine, the results can be remarkable.
One of the most interesting hybrids to roll out of a European studio is the Polestar 1, a Swedish-designed and Chinese-built coupe that launched in 2019. It’s way too new to have earned status as a collectible, but with only 1,500 built over three model years with an asking price of around $150,000 each, its exclusivity was guaranteed from the start. That’s one solid reason the Polestar 1 is destined to be a Future Classic. The thing is, its low-volume production is hardly the most interesting thing about the Polestar 1. Here are five more reasons this electrified Swede is worth your attention.
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It looks like a modern muscle car
Image Credit: Polestar The muscle car formula is well established. Put the biggest engine in the smallest car it’ll fit in. Details vary greatly from there, but that’s the gist. And the Polestar 1 fits the niche. We’ll get into its powertrain in a moment, but first let’s just take a look at the machine. It’s fetching but hardly ostentatious, with a long and low shape punctuated by classic muscular proportions. Its fenders and body sides are chiseled and its hulking haunches have subtle peaks that look straight out of a 1960s automotive design sketchbook.
The Polestar 1’s interior continues the muscular-yet-refined theme. The dash and door panels emphasize horizontal lines that stand in contrast to the vertically oriented touchscreen interface. Details like the handcrafted Orrefors crystal gear shifter, carbon fiber and matte metal trim, hand-stitched leather and subtle LED lighting lend a touch of elegance. Taken together, the Polestar 1’s design hints at the power within.
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The engine is supercharged and turbocharged
Image Credit: Polestar Turbocharging became commonplace for performance cars in the 1970s and 80s — perhaps the best example being the legendary Porsche 911 Turbo — and supercharging has been popular for a good bit longer than that. But combining both power-adding technologies into one powerful and efficient package is novel in production cars.
The engine sitting under the hood of the Polestar 1 displaces just 2.0 liters but, thanks to its combined turbo and supercharging, spins out an impressive 375 horsepower. This engine, along with a small electric motor, powers the 1’s front wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. But that’s far from the whole story.
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It’s a Swedish hot rod with 619 horsepower
Image Credit: Polestar Yes, the engine makes 375 ponies. But there’s more to the Polestar 1’s powertrain than that. Its twin electric motors send more than 100 horsepower to the rear wheels, providing through-the-road all-wheel drive. Put it all together and you get 619 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque.
It doesn’t just look like a muscle car. It accelerates like one, too. The 0-60 time is under 4.0 seconds, and the quarter mile is dispatched in 12 seconds flat. Line it up against a Mustang GT and wave goodbye.
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It can pull double duty as a daily driver
Image Credit: Polestar The Polestar 1 is powerful, but it’s also efficient. Those three electric motors mean it can travel solely on electric power. It boasts three lithium ion battery packs totaling 34 kWh of energy, and that’s enough juice to drive more than 50 miles on a single charge.
It’s fast in more than a straight line, too. Each rear wheel gets power from its own electric motor, allowing for active torque vectoring that doesn’t require fancy differentials or the application of the brakes.
There’s more than enough room for a couple to take a long weekend getaway with a reasonably sized trunk and, when necessary, a back seat for a few more passengers. And unlike pretty much any other four-passenger coupe, the Polestar 1’s suspension is adjustable. Fancy Öhlins shock absorbers with manually adjustable knobs might be commonplace on race cars, but not so much on a hybrid that can be driven daily.
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It’s the first car from a brand-new automaker
Image Credit: Polestar It’s extremely uncommon for a brand-new automaker to prove successful, and that’s especially true here in the United States. It’s too early to consider Polestar a success story, but the future looks reasonably strong. The brand started as a racing outfit that specialized in Volvo hardware before providing factory-backed engine tunes and eventually being acquired outright by the automaker in 2015. It was spun off as a distinct manufacturer of electric cars two years later, and the company has promised that the Polestar 1 will be its only vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine.
An interesting backstory doesn’t automatically equal collectibility, but it doesn’t hurt. The Polestar 1 is a singularly unique automobile. It’s a hybrid-powered modern muscle car that shouldn’t just take up space in a collection. It begs to be driven, and driven hard. It’s not hard to find second-hand Polestar 1 models selling for a little more than half their original sticker price. For the right owner, that represents a deal, and one that has a realistic chance to appreciate over the next few decades.
