Volvo’s Polestar performance brand expects to double sales next year to 1,500 units and quickly earn double-digit margins. It aims to do this by separating itself from established rivals such as BMW ‘M’ and Mercedes-AMG in the fast-growing, lucrative niche for powerful, high-precision vehicles by emphasizing one of the Swedish brand’s core values: safety with power delivery.
“We want to offer a true performance car,” Polestar Chief Operating Office Niels Moeller said. “This means the cars will be safer when handling at the limit.”
This will result from improvements that will be made to the braking, damping and cornering ability of Polestar variants compared with the core Volvo cars on which they are based, Polestar Chief Marketing Officer Hans Baath said.
“Anything we touch needs to be improved,” he said, adding the aim is for the improvements to make the cars better rather than just faster. When it comes to choosing between extra horsepower and more predictability or responsiveness we will choose the latter,” he said.
He also mentioned a second unique selling point Volvo plans to promote when reaching out to customers. “If you look at AMG not many of those vehicles are being driven during the winter,” Baath said. “Our defining characteristic is a car you can use in all conditions and during all seasons.”
