Does Polestar Signal a High-Performance Future for Volvo?

Just about every luxury automaker has a group within the company charged with developing its most exciting high-performance cars. BMW currently has nine vehicles under the M performance banner. Mercedes-Benz has 15 performance machines crafted by its AMG arm. Even Lexus and Cadillac, companies not known for building sporty cars, now have divisions working on hot performance cars?the Cadillac CTS-V is one of the quickest sport sedans you can buy.

And then there?s Volvo. The Swedish automaker, which built its brand by cultivating an image of safety and reliability, has been without such a performance brand. Volvo built a handful of hot cars, such as the limited-edition T5R sedans and wagons of the mid-1990s. But there has been no continuity to Volvo?s performance cars?no specialized division to help it keep up with the performance arms race.

That could change with the recent introduction of a Polestar performance upgrade to Volvos sold in North America. Polestar is a Swedish performance company of about 50 people that has been Volvo?s official motorsport partner since 1996, designing and building Volvo race cars. Now Polestar has developed a dealer-installed performance-software upgrade to the engine-control unit?a computer reflash, as it?s known on the street?that increases performance of street Volvos while maintaining the factory warranty.

The Polestar upgrade boosts power by 23 hp on five-cylinder turbocharged Volvos and 25 hp on six-cylinder models, according to Polestar sales manager Andreas Naeslund. "We do an incredible amount of stress testing for the critical components within the engine and for emissions," Naeslund says. "We have a fairly complete motor laboratory at Polestar but we also have access to and continuously use Volvo?s facilities. We have several Polestar employees that go to work at the Volvo engine laboratory. They work very closely on current engines?[and] also on future engines."

Tuning up an engine computer is a long way from building a complete performance vehicle like the luxury performance divisions do. But Polestar has its eye on that kind of role with Volvo. "It is, of course, our ambition to go beyond software. And exactly how we?re going to do that, we haven?t yet revealed" Naeslund says. "But sure, becoming the AMG of Volvo or the M division of Volvo would be great. Although, we are a free-standing company, so perhaps a parallel to Alpina [which makes custom cars based on BMWs] would be closer."

Polestar built one very interesting C30 to showcase the group?s potential. The company constructed what could be described as Volvo?s equivalent of the Audi TT RS?but even more extreme. The Polestar C30 has an upgraded 405-hp inline five-cylinder turbocharged engine, sport suspension, giant 15-inch Brembo brakes, and even an all-wheel-drive system adapted from a V50. That doesn?t sound like a package Volvo would sign off on?at least not yet. But, Naeslund says, "The car is built with off-the-shelf parts. And I know at one point it was considered within Volvo for a limited-edition model. It really would have made a stir, even if we only produced a handful."

The Polestar software performance upgrade has been a big success. The company says the tuning is currently installed on about 10 percent of the upgradable cars. Now Polestar hopes that success will be a springboard to even more partnerships with Volvo.

For its part, Volvo has said it plans to take the brand further upscale. And judging by the success of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, an expensive high-performance sub-brand like M or AMG means added profitability. "We think there?s a spot to be filled there," Naeslund says. "Let?s say Volvo wants to do a program like its previous R cars?we would be slightly more extreme than even those cars. That?s our position."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/does-polestar-signal-a-high-performance-future-for-volvo-7505365?src=rss

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