Polestar seemingly has some more powerful variants in the works, but it’s unclear if it will add a performance sub-brand to the ranks.
After his press conference at the 2024 New York motor show, which concluded the other week, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath was asked about whether the brand was considering a performance sub-brand.
“For now we would love to introduce much more power options within the range,” Mr Ingenlath told reporters.
When pressed further, the CEO said “in Goodwood we will give little more of a clue of how we will embrace the power and performance aspect of the brand”.
The 2024 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed begins on July 11, but often media events and product reveals take place on the days beforehand.
While Polestar currently markets itself as a luxury electric vehicle brand with Swedish roots, the company started as a racing outfit and then a tuner of Volvo cars from the mid-2000s.
It was bought by Volvo 2015, where it became the Swedish marque’s in-house performance sub-brand before being split off into a standalone brand concentrating first on plug-in hybrid, and now pure electric vehicles.
As a standalone marque Polestar has so far avoided introducing high performance variants.
The closest it has come to embracing its sporting heritage has been the limited edition BST versions of the Polestar 2. While the BST cars didn’t offer more power and torque than other models in the range, they did gain improved handling with lowered suspension and other tweaks, as well as slightly sportier looks.
With the production of the critical Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 crossovers now underway, and potentially some spicier models in the works, the company is no doubt looking to improve the media narrative surrounding the brand.
After delivering just 54,600 cars in 2023, well below its initial target of 80,000, Polestar fired 15 per cent of its workforce. This was followed in February with Volvo, then Polestar’s largest shareholder, divesting a majority of its stake, handing most of it over to parent Geely.
In March, Polestar managed to secure US$950 million (A$1.46 billion) in capital from outside investors.
