Polestar to focus on high performance electric cars; made a separate brand

Volvo cars, the famous Swedish car company, coming under the umbrella of Chinese car maker Geely has made an announcement which marks a major shift towards the brand’s transformation. Polestar, the high performance tuning arm of Volvo, is now all set to become a separate brand all by itself with focus on high performance electric cars.In order to give a major boost to the newly created brand, Volvo cars has also made its Senior Vice President for Design, Thomas Ingenlath, as the new Chief Executive Officer of Polestar. Mr.Ingenlath has been one of the major driving force behind Volvo’s recent design transformation in the recent years.

“Thomas heading up the Polestar organisation shows our commitment to establishing a truly differentiated stand-alone brand within the Volvo Car Group,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.

Assisting Mr.Ingenlath in Polestar would be Jonathan Goodman who is currently the Senior Vice president for Corporate Communications in Volvo. He would be joining Polestar as its Chief Operating Officer.

“With 25 years of commercial experience in the automotive industry, Jonathan is ideally placed to provide operational experience alongside Thomas’s vision, building on the experienced management team that will drive the Polestar brand forwards” said Mr Samuelsson.

“Polestar will be a credible competitor in the emerging global market for high performance electrified cars. With Polestar, we are able to offer electrified cars to the world’s most demanding, progressive drivers in all market segments.” he added.

Having worked together in motorsports since 1996, Volvo cars had acquired Polestar performance in July 2015. Henceforth, Polestar branded high performance cars that will no longer carry the Volvo logo will be offered. Volvo range of cars, optimised under Polestar performance packages will also be offered separately.

Polestar would be able to benefit from the technologies shared by Volvo that will also result in better economies of scale. This would help Polestar to develop and produce high performance electric cars.

Mr Ingenlath said: “I am really excited to take up the challenge of establishing this exciting brand, developing a fabulous portfolio of bespoke products and channelling the passion we have throughout the Polestar team. The next chapter in Polestar’s history is just beginning.”

Further announcements from Polestar regarding its products and future plans is expected.