2021 Polestar 1

If you think the Volvo S90 is a good-looking car but has too many doors, the Polestar 1 is on offer from the Swedish tuning firm that once acted as Volvo's official skunkworks. Now its own manufacturer, Polestar's first offering has enough Volvo bits to be familiar and reliable but enough style and rarity to be considered a luxury exotic. Hybridization is the name of the game for the Polestar 1, and this model gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged and supercharged four-pot along with three electric motors for a combined output of 619 horsepower and 737 lb-ft of torque. Along with an eight-speed auto and all-wheel-drive, the limited-run Polestar 1 is on offer for $155,000, but are the bragging rights that come with owning a one-of-1,500 car enough to justify buying a rebadged Volvo?

The Polestar 1 is available to order for the princely sum of $155,000, before a $1,500 destination charge. A $500 deposit secures your order, and the only charged option is matte paint, at a cost of $5,000. Thus, a fully loaded model starts and ends at $160,000, before additional fees or rebates.

The Polestar 1 doesn't feature the adaptive air suspension that is so favored by Volvo and other luxury automakers in this sort of price bracket. Instead, you get high-end Ohlins adjustable dampers, but before you get too excited, it's worth noting that these must be adjusted manually. This can be done for the front by popping the hood, but the back requires you to jack the car up and get under it - something that those who can afford this type of vehicle are unlikely to do. Nevertheless, countless man-hours have gone into each individual damper setting to ensure that they behave as intended. If you choose to, you can have your dampers set stiff or soft, but throughout the damping range, the ride is reasonably stiff yet comfortable. What this means is that in standard configuration, the Polestar 1 neither rides with the grace of a Bentley or Mercedes S-Class, nor does it have the same kind of rigidity and poise of a Porsche. It's a fine line, but the Polestar 1 walks it well. Most of the power goes to the front, so this isn't a power sliding monster, but the individual rear motors on each wheel are capable of full torque vectoring, which means that you can still go into corners far quicker than seems feasible, with understeer only kicking in when you go ridiculously overboard. It's an interesting sensation, but it's good. The brakes are also good and are supplied by the same company that developed the stoppers on the McLaren P1 hypercar - Akebono. They respond sharply and become easy to modulate with practice, but that regenerative braking system will confound first-time drivers.

The Polestar 1 might be relatively new, but it's not the vision of a fly-by-night startup. It's got a heritage of safety and performance stemming from its affiliation with Volvo. It's exquisitely finished and offers real GT cruising ability along with impressive acceleration. One of its biggest talking points is the expansive use of carbon fiber to keep weight down, and while this contributes to making the Polestar 1 expensive, it also aids in the car offering a phenomenal range on electric power alone. Sure, it's short on customization options and its infotainment system is a bit finicky, but its striking design, impeccable quality, and vast array of safety features go a long way to righting those wrongs. Furthermore, with just 500 units being built annually for three years and production ending in 2021, the Polestar 1 is very rare. This is a car for discerning individuals who want luxury and performance bundled in a package that also offers brilliant fuel economy, and while there are certainly faster, more comfortable, or more prestigious offerings available, few have the wow factor of the Polestar 1. For that reason, we love it. Also, our inner kid likes the idea that we're driving a car from a video game.

Since there's only one model and no additional equipment available, the Polestar 1 is a take-it-or-leave-it kind of car. We'd stick with gloss paint over a matte finish, as the metallic flakes help accentuate the sleek lines and make the car even more futuristic in appearance. We'd opt for either white or black to match the interior.

Suppose you like the basic design of the Polestar 1 but need more practicality and better interior space? Suppose that your budget for a new car is less than half what a Polestar 1 retails for? And suppose you couldn't care less about rarity? Well, the Volvo S90 T8 on which the Polestar 1 is based may be just the car for you. It features the same 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and a similar, albeit less powerful hybrid setup. It produces less horsepower than the Polestar, with just 400 hp and 472 lb-ft of torque, but it also weighs a lot less, making it an impressive sprinter. The trunk also dwarfs that of the Polestar 1, with 13.5 cubic feet compared to 4.41. However, it offers a little more than 20 miles of electric range. For us, the rarity and style of the Polestar 1 are hard to ignore, but better acceleration and range are not enough to justify spending 155k on a carbon-bodied Volvo unless money is no object. For most, the S90 T8 is a better option.

Tesla has been in the game for a while now, and its Model S is one of the most exciting electric cars available. Starting at a base price of $79,990, it's almost half the price of the Polestar 1. It also boasts four doors, seating for four adults, or five if a child squeezes in, and a cargo volume of 15 cubic feet - and 58.1 with the seats folded. This makes it more affordable and more practical than the Polestar, and since production is not limited, you're more likely to be able to get one. Peak output is also greater, with this version of the Model S producing 670 hp. That gets the dual-motor all-wheel-drive sedan from 0-60 in 3.1 seconds - more than a second faster than the Polestar 1. Their top speeds are the same 155 mph. The upgraded interior for 2021 is still rather bland for some, while others will view it as futuristic. What can't be argued is that smartphone integration and traditional buttons and switches are totally absent. We like both cars, and each has its strengths, but the Tesla is the better overall package.