Polestar's performance EV plan, according to CEO Thomas Ingenlath

The Concept Coupeà became a spur for a whole Polestar enterprise, helping to grow the idea for a Volvo electric performance brand. The name was fresh, worked in many languages and was associated only with Volvo but needed a better-defined mission. Gothenburg bought the company, whose owners obligingly rebranded themselves. Then work began to re-engineer the Concept Coupeà with a much more exotic carbonfibre body (lighter and stiffer than steel). At the same time, the hybrid powertrain was developed to a new, higher level.

In launch guise, the Polestar 1 will have to settle for the description ‘electrified’ when it hits the market in 2019, whereas its successors will be purely battery-electric cars. It has a 592bhp powertrain (a 374bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged petrol four driving the front wheels, plus a pair of 109bhp electric motors on the rear axle) and there’s an under-floor traction battery big enough to give a 90-mile electric-only range. It is the first car to make use of Ohlins’ continuously controlled electronic suspension in production and is advanced in most areas – which is just as well because Ingenlath’s business plan calls for hand-manufacture of just 500 units a year, priced at more than €150,000 a copy (over £133,475 at current exchange rates).

“Polestar 1 is very much a halo product,” says Ingenlath. “We’re going to need those for the future, just as we’ll need lower-priced models to bring flair and feeling to a much broader audience.”

Which is why the Polestar 2 and 3 will be considerably lower priced and less exotic than the Polestar 1, defining the other extremity of the marque’s target area by making use of existing manufacturing and utilising existing Volvo running gear. The Polestar 2 is tipped to be a mid-sized battery-electric hatch – intended for production in 2019 to challenge Tesla’s eagerly awaited Model 3. The Polestar 3 is a larger SUV. Ingenlath won’t yet spell out exactly what the second and third models will be like, except to say that they won’t share the profile of existing Volvo models but will use Volvo interior designs. They’ll have “special Polestar shapes”, he says, and he agrees readily that a modern iteration of the old 1800ES ‘breadvan’ coupeà would make a great contemporary Polestar model.

Ingenlath says he has “nothing to hide” when it comes to using suitable Volvo components for his new designs, citing this as the only economic way of helping Polestar achieve its aims. “This is a family,” he says, “so we have some common values. Our products will share a certain quality of build and a certain degree of usability. And there’s the safety. We’ll never compromise on safety in a Polestar car.”

As times goes on, the real skill, says Ingenlath, will be in making wise decisions about where to invest Polestar’s limited development funds.

Ingenlath wants the Polestar operation to achieve a global volume of “around 50,000-plus units” in five years’ time, based on a three-model line-up that by then should be on the point of further expansion.

Although no Polestar model will share its body-in-white with a Volvo, he reserves the right to keep doing Polestar-modified Volvos. “We like those,” he says, “but they’re still Volvos.”

Other similarities? Both marques will continue to use the successful principles of the current ‘Thor’s hammer’ headlight design. The way that shape develops will be quite different from one to the next, but we will always be able to see a relationship, Ingenlath promises.

Our interview time is up. Ingenlath nowadays has two demanding jobs‚ and clearly he needs to get on with one or the other. Even so, he comfortably bats away my concerns for his ability to sleep at night. “In a place like this, you never do your job on your own,” he says, easily. “We have many good people here, and they are the reason it works.”

QUIRKY VOLVOS TO INSPIRE POLESTAR

CEO Thomas Ingenlath says in future, Polestar will build desirable models that don’t fit the conventional grid, mentioning “fastbacks, hatchbacks and whateverbacks”. Here are some hits and misses that Volvo has built along those lines in the past.

VOLVO P1800 1961-1973 - Tough, comfortable and fondly remembered coupeà used saloon engines and running gear in a remarkably stylish two-door format that lasted 12 years. Roger Moore made the car famous as transport for his sleuthing character in The Saint.

VOLVO 1800ES 1972-1973 - Responding to the success of ‘breadvan’ coupeÃs like the Reliant Scimitar GTE, Volvo modified its P1800, giving it an eye-catching glass hatch. With tougher US safety laws coming, Volvo couldn’t afford to invest in required improvements.

VOLVO 262C 1978-1980 - Following a Swedish visit by high- powered Ford-Lincoln execs, Volvo commissioned Bertone to produce this odd-looking 260-saloon-based coupeà targeting US sales, using unaltered saloon mechanicals. Around 6600 cars were sold.

VOLVO 480 1986-1995 - Neat coupeÃ-estate lasted nine years in production, mostly because it had more room inside than it appeared, it worked in the US and people approved of its pop-up lights. Typically Volvo tough, it was made in Volvo’s Dutch, ex-Daf Nedcar plant.