Volvo Cars and Geely are challenging Tesla

Polestar is Volvo Car Group’s performance road car brand, and with this investment the financial muscles are in place as well as the industrial and manufacturing expertise that Polestar will have access to. The investment also establishes the fully consolidated Volvo Cars subsidiary as a stand-alone electrified performance car company. And the first production model is now unveiled. The investment will be used – among other things – to establish a Polestar manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China, marking a new chapter in the development of China as a manufacturing hub for Volvo Cars. This set-up aims to shorten the time Polestar needs to commercially launch its cars, which the companies hopes will give them an advantage over competitors. Volvo Cars and Polestar will also benefit from synergies in the development of next generation technologies such as shared procurement costs, joint development and economies of scale. Polestar’s first production car, the Polestar 1, is a 600 hp two-door, four-seater hybrid coupé. It has a pure electric range of 150km. The electrified performance car will go in production in Chengdu in mid 2019, and will be closely followed later in 2019 by a smaller vehicle named Polestar 2. The Polestar 2 will be the first fully-electric car launched by Volvo Car Group, and the first of a total of five fully electric Polestar- or Volvo-branded vehicles to be launched between 2019 and 2021. With these new cars Volvo is making a clear run for Tesla.