Good News, America - You've Been Chosen to 'Physically Interact' With the Polestar Brand

Lordy, PR-speak can be offputting. Nevertheless, the newly single Polestar — cast off from Volvo Cars to become its own electrified performance brand under the Geely corporate umbrella — is heading straight to the United States.

The U.S., not surprisingly, was chosen as an initial launch market for the brand, along with China (every electric car maker’s dream market), Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. What form will the rollout take? Let’s just say there’s going to be a lot of interaction. Physical interaction.

Hey, get your mind out of the Swedish gutter. These interactions, which the automaker assures as will be with the brand, but not necessarily a car, won’t occur until the middle of 2019. That’s when the 600-horsepower Polestar 1 begins production.

Don’t expect to walk into a dealership. Rather, customers interested in the Polestar 1 and subsequent all-electric models will enter a “Polestar Space,” which sounds like the title of a futuristic sci-fi movie. It’s actually just “an environment where customers can physically interact with the brand.” The U.S., along with the other selected countries, was chosen due to public reaction to the brand’s October launch.

Polestar has three models in the works. The first, the Polestar 1, is an ultra-expensive offering that looks like a shortened S90 coupe. Beneath the paint, however, lies a carbon fiber body, a front-mounted 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder driving the front wheels, and two electric motors driving the rear wheels. Total torque from both powerplants is 737 lb-ft. Both powertrains can operate independently from one another, or combine their traction and action, depending on what kind of driving the buyer has in mind that particular day. Polestar claims a range of 62 miles on battery power alone.

It’s also oh-so-exclusive. With a planned annual production volume of just 500 units from its Chengdu, China, assembly plant (currently under construction), the Polestar 1 will not be a common sight. Nor can buyers expect to find one in a Polestar Space. Still, it doesn’t seem like that’s a problem.

“During the brand’s launch day in October, one customer per minute was registering their interest in being one of the first to receive the Polestar 1 using an all-new subscription model,” the automaker said in a statement. “Expressions of interest are made through www.polestar.com and these will be converted to vehicle orders when the formal order books for the Polestar 1 open in early 2018.”

Ownership will be subscription-based, with servicing handled by Volvo. Get that VISA ready.

Those of lesser means will want to wait before interacting with the Polestar brand. The automaker’s next vehicle — the imaginatively named Polestar 2 — will be a more affordable midsize sedan, followed by a Polestar 3 SUV priced somewhere between Polestars 1 and 2. If this sounds exactly like the product timeline of a certain California-based electric car maker, well, you’re right.

[Image: Polestar]