Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC

The company origins can be traced to the 1996 foundation of Flash Engineering, a Swedish racing team competing in Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC). The team was sold and rebranded as Polestar Racing, which began modifying Volvos for racing in the late 2000s. In 2009, the brand became the official Volvo partner to modify existing models, under the brand Polestar Performance. Volvo eventually bought the company in July 2015 and began selling Polestar-enhanced models directly through their resellers.

Polestar has also produced prototype cars, with the first being the C30 Polestar Performance Concept Prototype (2010) with over 400 bhp (300 kW) and 510 N⋅m (380 lbf⋅ft).

The Volvo S60 Polestar Concept is the heir to the C30 Polestar, featuring 508 BHP from a modified T6 engine, launched in June 2012. The car sprints from 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of over 300 km/h (190 mph). Motor Trend tested the car at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where it broke the lap record for four-door cars, matching the lap time of an Audi R8.

Selection of petrol and hybrid powered Volvo-based Polestar models: