Polestar Turns To Hybrid For High-Performance S90 and V90

Volvo's Polestar division is working on high-performance variants of the S90 and V90. But they want these models to stand out from the competition. How does Polestar plan to do this? Hybrid power!

“Polestar is going to come out with something very exciting and a little bit different. We think it is going to shake up the market,” said Volvo UK’s managing director, Jon Wakefield to Autocar.

Wakefield wouldn't go into more detail about what Polestar is planning. But we only need to look to a story from last year to get an idea.

“It will be high performance developed on electrification, we will use electrification as a booster, we will not start diluting our brand with big engines and extra cylinders, V8s. The combustion unit will be Volvo but we will use electrifications to create a modern high-performance car,” said Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson.

It is expected that Polestar will use the T8 hybrid system found on vehicles using Volvo's Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA) - S90, V90, and XC90. Currently, the T8 powertrain produces a total output of 400 horsepower and 472 pound-feet of torque via a turbo and supercharged 2.0L four-cylinder and electric motor. It is unclear how Polestar plans on increasing the output of the T8 powertrain, but we're guessing some tweaks could be made to the turbo and supercharger.

Pic Credit: Volvo