Volvo's High-Performance Polestar Brand Just Unveiled Sweden's Answer to the Tesla Model 3 Production is expected to start in early 2020.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Volvo's high-performance Polestar brand unveiled the all-new Polestar 2 EV on Wednesday. The Polestar 2 is a compact electric sedan designed to rival Tesla's hot-selling Model 3.
"Polestar 2 is our first fully electric car and first volume model," Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement. "Everything about it has been designed and engineered with passion and dedication."
According to Ingenlath, the mass production Polestar 2 is a major step in the company's quest to deliver environmentally friendly, high-performance automobiles.
"As an electric performance brand, and through the forthcoming launch of a portfolio of fully electric cars, Polestar is determined to address the world's air quality challenges," he said. "Polestar delivers electric performance cars that are great to own and drive."
Volvo Car Group owns 50% of Polestar while Volvo's parent company Geely Group owns the other 50%.
Polestar 2 is expected to have a range of 275 miles on a single charge. Its pair of electric motors develop 408 horsepower drawing electricity from a 78 kWh LG Chem battery pack. (China market cars will get a 72 kWh locally produced battery pack.)
Polestar 2 is built on Volvo's Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform.
According to the automaker, Polestar 2 can hit 60 mph in less than five seconds.
The Polestar 2 is available with a Performance Pack with added goodies like Öhlins dampers, Brembo brakes, and 20-inch wheels.
The Polestar 2's interior features an 11-inch vertically-oriented touchscreen. It will be one of the first cars in the world to feature an Android-powered infotainment system that offers features such as Google Assistant and Google Maps.
The Polestar 2 will go into production at the company's Chengdu, China factory in early 2020 in both right and left-hand drive.
The fully-loaded Polestar 2 Launch Edition will start at $63,000 in the U.S. A $7,500 federal tax incentive can knock the price down to $55,500.
A shorter range version of the Polestar 2 will be sold in Europe. However, there are no current plans to offer that variant in the US.
As with all Polestar models, the Polestar 2 will only be available for sale online.
The Polestar 2 will make is official auto show debut in March at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.
