Volvo rebrands Polestar as an electrified performance car maker

Volvo has appointed a new team to develop electrified high-performance cars and will rebrand Polestar as a new car maker.

Polestar, Volvo's performance arm has announced that it has appointed a new team to help the brand develop new electrified high-performance cars, and is to become a separately-branded car company. This move is the latest stage in Volvo’s ongoing transformation.

Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars said, “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.”

To develop the brand, Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo will assume the position of Chief Executive Officer at Polestar. Ingenlath is the artist responsible for Volvo’s new design philosophy on which their latest generation of products is based. Thomas Ingenlath will be working with Jonathan Goodman, who will take charge as Chief Operating Officer at Polestar. Goodman previously held the position of Senior Vice President Corporate Communication at Volvo Cars.

Ingenlath stated: “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.”

Ingenlath and Goodman’s reappointment to Polestar has allowed Robin Page to take up the role of Senior Vice President of Design and David Ibison as Senior Vice President Corporate Communications at Volvo Cars.

Volvo Cars, a subsidiary of Geely Auto of China, entirely acquired Polestar Performance in July 2015. Volvo and Polestar have a long history of working together in motorsport since 1996. In the future, Polestar will be offering “Polestar” branded cars which will no longer feature the Volvo logo. However, It will continue to offer optimisation packages for Volvo’s range of cars under the Polestar Engineered brand. Volvo has also released an image with the statement which could be the new Polestar Logo.

Polestar will share specific technological and engineering aspects with Volvo Cars, while also benefiting from significant economies of scale. All of this will provide Polestar with the necessary resources to design, develop and build electrified high-performance cars.

Further announcements about products, industrialisation and commercial plans on the restructured Polestar brand will be revealed in the third quarter of 2017. There is a possibility that a new Polestar branded car could be revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show this coming autumn.