Polestar wins the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and releases special editions to celebrate.

Polestar celebrates winning the FIA World Touring Car Championship with Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar Performance World Champion Editions

Last week, Polestar Cyan Racing won the FIA World Touring Car Championship in a Volvo S60 Polestar TC1 race car, and the team’s Thed Björk secured the Driver’s Championship – the first Swede ever to win a motor racing world title. Polestar has today unveiled the Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar Performance World Champion Edition to celebrate Polestar Cyan Racing’s win.

“The engineers from Polestar and Cyan Racing have worked collaboratively on engineering developments for existing Polestar road cars for many years. It’s therefore fitting that we celebrate the remarkable achievement of securing our maiden World Championship by adding more performance to the cars that have been instrumental this season. With the Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar Performance World Champion Editions, we’ve created an accessible piece of history for many Volvo car owners,” said Christian Samson, responsible for Product and Development at Polestar.

The Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar Performance World Champion Editions are available on all D4, D5, T5 and T6 models and include all available enhancements offered by the Polestar Performance Parts programme, being the 19” bespoke Polestar light alloy wheels plus performance-focused tyres, a free-flow stainless-steel exhaust system and sports air filter as well as uprated suspension dampers and springs. Visually, the car is differentiated internally thanks to interior highlights such as the Polestar gear lever, and exterior details such as a rear diffusor and rear spoiler.

All cars also receive the Polestar powertrain optimisation that increases power by up to 10hp and 50Nm of torque, as well as delivering faster gearshifts and improved throttle response.

The Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar Performance World Champion Editions are available from any Polestar retailer globally, where the Polestar Performance Parts can be fitted to new or pre-owned cars. For more information, visit: engineered.polestar.com

Volvo, from 2019, will end cars that have only an internal combustion engine.

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has announced that every Volvo it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor, marking the historic end of cars that have only an internal combustion engine (ICE) and placing electrification at the core of its future business. 

The announcement represents one of the most significant moves by any car maker to embrace electrification, and highlights how, over a century after the invention of the internal combustion engine, electrification is paving the way for a new chapter in automotive history. 

“This is about the customer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “People increasingly demand electrified cars, and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs. You can now pick and choose whichever electrified Volvo you wish.” 

Volvo Cars will introduce a portfolio of electrified cars across its model range, embracing fully electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars and mild-hybrid cars. 

It will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021, three of which will be Volvo models and two of which will be high-performance electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance car arm. Full details of these models will be announced at a later date.

These five cars will be supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid 48-volt options on all models, representing one of the broadest electrified car offerings of any car maker. 

This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor, as pure ICE cars are gradually phased out and replaced by ICE cars that are enhanced with electrified options. 

“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” said Mr Samuelsson. “Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.” 

The announcement underlines Volvo Cars’ commitment to minimising its environmental impact and making the cities of the future cleaner. Volvo Cars is focused on reducing the carbon emissions of both its products as well as its operations. It aims to have climate-neutral manufacturing operations by 2025. 

The decision also follows this month’s announcement that Volvo Cars will turn Polestar into a new separately branded electrified global high-performance car company. Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design at Volvo Cars, will lead Polestar as Chief Executive Officer. 

The polestar brand works it's magic on the upcoming new XC-60 Sports Utility Vehicle.

The Polestar optimisation improves five key areas of the powertrain while retaining the Volvo warranty, class-leading emission levels, consumption of 2.1 l/100 km and a pure electric range of 45 kilometres for the T8.

Experience from more than two decades on the track with Cyan Racing, the motorsport partner of Polestar, has transformed the engine performance, throttle response, off-throttle response, gearshift speed and hold, taking the XC60 to a new level of driving pleasure.

”Our goal is to create usable performance in everyday driving situations for Volvo owners who want an enhanced driving experience,” said Henrik Fries, Vice President, Research and Development at Polestar. “The new XC60 has provided us with an excellent base to work on with a dynamic chassis and a state of the art powertrain. With the Polestar optimisation, it makes the new Volvo XC60 a true drivers’ car.”

Two key features of the optimisation are the improved engine performance and gearbox functionality.

The enhancements for the engine are made to provide greater power and torque in the mid-range of the engine, the area most often used in everyday-driving, for example when joining a highway, overtaking or exiting a corner.

The gearbox shifts faster, gearshift points have been calibrated to utilise the optimised mid-range engine performance, and the gear-hold function maintains the same gear when cornering with high lateral g-force in order to avoid unsettling the balance of the car.

A total of five XC60 models are available* for Polestar optimisation, including the T8, T6, T5, D5 and D4.

* = Release and model availability may vary between markets

The brand of Volvo, continues to grow at a great rate in all markets of the world.

Polestar, the performance brand of Volvo Cars, has reached the milestone of one hundred thousand powertrain optimisations for Volvo cars around the globe since its introduction. The milestone is reached as sales hits an all-time high in the first five months of 2017 with more than 12,000 cars optimised - a growth of over 30 per cent compared to last year.

High demand on the latest generation Polestar optimisations for the Volvo Cars Drive-E powertrain is a key factor to the increase, with the all-new Volvo XC60 set to be included in the optimisation range from July.

“This is an important milestone for Polestar and proof of the increasing demand from performance-oriented Volvo customers around the world,” said Johan Lindqvist, Head of Global Sales at Polestar. “We are well on our way to our best year in terms of sales and we have further exciting products just around the corner.”

The most popular Volvo model for optimisation is the XC60, closely followed by the XC90 and V60, with China, Sweden and the United States as the top three markets in terms of sales volumes.

The latest generation Polestar optimisation affects five key areas of the powertrain in standard Volvo road cars, including engine performance, throttle response, gearshift speed, gear hold functionality and off-throttle response. The changes are made to increase driving pleasure and performance, based on learnings from thousands of laps on racing circuits all over the world by Cyan Racing, the motorsport partner of Polestar.

All changes of the Polestar Optimisation are made with certified emissions, fuel consumption, service intervals and Volvo warranties unchanged.

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has raised SEK5bn from the sale of newly-issued preference shares.

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has raised SEK5bn from the sale of newly-issued preference shares to a group of Swedish institutional investors.

The group of investors comprises two Swedish pension funds, AMF and the First Swedish National Pension Fund (AP1), as well as Folksam, a Swedish insurance company.

The preference shares may be repurchased or converted into listed ordinary shares upon the majority shareholder’s decision. At this time, no decision has been taken.

The issuance has been conducted to further diversify Volvo Cars' long term funding sources.

The detailed terms of the sale have not been disclosed, but the transaction will have an immaterial dilutive effect on the current 100 per cent ownership of Volvo Cars by Zhejiang Geely Holdings.

The share sale follows two bond issues earlier this year, a EUR500m bond to global institutional investors in May, and a further SEK3bn to Swedish institutional investors in November. The bonds were issued for general corporate purposes and aimed at increasing the company's financial flexibility.

Today’s move is another step towards Volvo Cars’ long expressed ambition to act as a listed company.

Volvo Cars’ financial performance is strong. It is expected that 2016 will be another record year in terms of sales, with growth coming across the board from its three main sales regions of Europe, China and the US.

Operating profit for the first nine months of the year was SEK7.7bn compared to a full year operating profit for the whole of 2015 of SEK6.6bn, prompting Volvo Cars' expectations for the full year to "substantially improve" profits compared to last year.

Volvo Cars has successfully built a sense of momentum around its transformation since it was acquired by Zhejiang Geely Holdings in 2010, driven by the ongoing renewal of its complete product range, powertrain and chassis technologies and safety and connectivity technologies.

In coming years Volvo Cars will continue to reposition its brand to compete with its global premium rivals, revive its operations in the US and develop its global manufacturing footprint, grow further in China and double its market share in Europe.

It will also introduce an entirely new model range, embed its new engine technologies and maintain its position as the leader in car safety and autonomous drive (AD) technologies.

Volvo Cars is also forging alliances that place it at the forefront of the latest technological developments in the automotive industry developments.

It intends to set up a joint venture with Autoliv, the leading automotive safety technology company, to design and manufacture separately-branded AD and driver assistance software technology packages for sale to third party OEMs.

Volvo Cars has also joined forces with Uber, the ride sharing company, to build and co-develop base vehicles for AD cars.

Volvo Cars has launched a new Polestar performance package to go on the new S90 and V90 luxury cars.

Polestar has launched the new generation of its performance package for the new Volvo S90 and V90. Known as Polestar Performance Optimisation, the package upgrades the entire drivetrain and further improves driving dynamics.

The S90 and V90 are the latest models launched on SPA, Volvo Cars’ new modular vehicle architecture that will underpin all new cars in Volvo’s 90 and 60 series. After bringing its new performance package to the XC90 last year, Polestar now launches the same upgrades for the other two models in Volvo’s top-of-the-line 90 range.

Rather than simply increasing engine performance, Polestar Performance Optimisation upgrades the entire drivetrain. By improving throttle and off-throttle response, gearshift speed and precision, as well as overall engine performance, the S90 and V90 become even more dynamic and fun to drive.

"We continue to enhance the performance of Volvo’s new, class-leading SPA vehicle architecture and Drive-E powertrains. The S90 and V90 already offer excellent driving dynamics, and we are delighted to raise the performance level even further with Polestar Performance Optimisation," said Niels Möller, COO of Polestar, the Volvo Cars performance brand.

The performance package has been developed in close cooperation with the engineers and racing drivers of Polestar Cyan Racing.

"It is exciting to take the technology we use in our race cars and apply that to Volvo’s road cars. We have created a balanced package that provides performance in all conditions, whether you are winning a race or driving actively on your favourite roads," said Thed Björk, who drives a Volvo S60 Polestar TC1 with Drive-E technology in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

The first S90/V90 variant available for optimisation is the D5 PowerPulse diesel. The upgrade increases the engine's output from 235 hp and 480 Nm to 240 hp and 500 Nm. The upgrade costs £835.

USA SALES MARCH - The Swedish Giant grows with a huge 15.9% increase on last years numbers.

Volvo Car USA, LLC, (VCUSA) reported U.S. sales of 6,857 vehicles, a 15.9 percent increase versus March 2015. The ninth month of double digit growth was led by the award winning XC90 luxury SUV with 3,000 vehicles sold. Year-to-date sales are up 19.2 percent.

“Our sales streak is certainly something we are proud of, led by the acclaimed XC90,” said Lex Kerssemakers, President and CEO of Volvo Car USA. “We just started taking pre-orders for the S90 luxury sedan, which we will arrive in dealerships this summer. Along with this, we launched the S90 concierge program to give our customers a personal contact throughout the purchase process.”

Volvo is implementing a sweeping $11 billion transformation plan that has involved the development of its own modular vehicle architecture, a new engine range, global manufacturing capability, a completely renewed product range and world leading developments in safety, autonomous driving and connectivity.