Polestar

If you’ve noticed the names Polestar, Flash Engineering, or Polestar Performance involved on the racing circuit, then you may already have the heads-up on Polestar’s roots.  Polestar was founded in 1996 by Volvo Cars’ partner Flash/Polestar Racing and was acquired in 2015 by Volvo.  Polestar was also secured by Greely in 2010.

In 1996, and in much the same format as the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) ran its races, the Swedish Touring Car Championship started (STCC).  Volvo had been competing in the BTCC since 1994 and it was with the new STCC that Volvo joined forces with the newly-founded Flash Engineering racing team.  The Flash Engineering racing team was owned by the Swedish racing car driver Jan Nilsson (“Flash”).  The new partnership saw Volvo provide financial support as well as the racing cars for competition.

In 2005, Jan Nilsson sold the Flash Engineering team to Christian Dahl, whereupon the racing team was renamed Polestar Racing.  It was later rebranded Cyan Racing.  In July 2015, Volvo purchased Polestar Performance, the production car tuning division of Polestar.  In 2010, Volvo was also acquired by Geely, a Chinese multinational automotive company.

Polestar vehicles are a brand of automotive vehicles that have their design headquarters in Sweden, but the vehicles are actually produced in China.  Polestar vehicles are an EV luxury performance car brand owned by the Chinese firm Geely, which are now a separate EV performance brand from Volvo.

If you are keen on buying a new Polestar EV, they are now available in Australia.  Polestar’s first car was the Polestar 1, a luxurious plug-in hybrid that was only ever built in small numbers.  Now, at the time of writing (mid 2022), the Polestar 2 is a good-looking luxury EV that can be bought in Australia – three Polestar 2 models are currently available, each model essentially based on the range you can get out of the battery.