Volvo announced today that it has acquired 100 percent of the tuning firm Polestar, maker of the divine and incredibly rare hot-rod Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar. This means more Polestars for everyone, which is excellent news for the tiny, fiercely loyal tribe of high-performance-Volvo fans worldwide.
We’re not joking about the rarity factor: Volvo only built 750 Polestar-tuned S60s and V60s for 2015, a mere 120 of which were brought to U.S. shores—80 of which were wagons. Those hopped-up Swedes sold out fast enough for Volvo to commit to another run of 750 for 2016. This time, a full 274 examples will come to the U.S. market.
With this purchase, Polestar, which has been a motorsports partner with Volvo since 1996, will become the automaker’s in-house tuning badge, along the lines of Mercedes AMG or BMW M. Volvo forecasts a near-term production expansion to between 1000 and 1500 Polestar vehicles a year.
Polestar will continue to sell aftermarket tuning kits for Volvo powerplants, including performance packages for the automaker’s next-generation Drive-E turbo four-cylinder. Existing Polestar Performance employees will now become members of the Volvo company, while Polestar’s racing team will remain separate, under the control of Christian Dahl and operating under a new, as-yet-unannounced name.
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