SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Finally, a zero emissions vehicle to inspire universal adoration. An electric vehicle that old pistonheads and nouveau riche EVers alike can lust for. A car that, like Porsche’s Taycan, transcends all the normal electric vehicle hype and is, well, just a good car. A two-door sports coupe, that, but for its at least semi-outrageous price may not just be the best EV on the market today but possibly the best luxury gran turismo — and, yes, I have tested the McLaren GT — of any propulsion type.

It’s Polestar’s new “1” plug-in hybrid and, amongst its many superlatives, it is perhaps the most convenient car of all time. On the one hand, thanks to its 34 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, it’s got 112 kilometres of electric-only — or, as Volvo calls it, electric-first — range, which means, for virtually all your daily commuting, we’re talking totally emissions-free, charge-it-at-home EV propitiousness.

On the other hand, take to the open road and after you run out of free electrons, you have a small, yet powerful inline-four to keep you motoring. In fact, thanks to a sizeable 60-litre gas tank and a little 2.0-litre four that fairly sips fossil fuel, its total range is a whopping 870 kilometres. And when you do run out of both gas and battery, replenishing the beast takes but the same two minutes as filling up any other gas-fed car. The convenience of an EV at home, the quick refueling of a gas car on the highway and an 80, maybe 85 per cent, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions? Where do I sign up?

But it actually gets better. Being as this is a Polestar, Volvo’s premium performance brand, there are no less than three electric motors on hand, two of them at the rear axle alone. Factor in the aforementioned teensy, tiny — but-oh-so-willing — little 2.0-litre four-banger, which, thanks to being both turbo- and supercharged, is good for 326 horsepower and there’s a grand total of 619 horsepower underfoot and, even more incredibly, 738 pound feet of torque. Getting excited yet?

2020 Polestar 1 Mike Dodd / Beadyeye Patrick Gosling / Beadyeye

2020 Polestar 1 Handout , Volvo

2020 Polestar 1 Mike Dodd / Beadyeye Patrick Gosling / Beadyeye

2020 Polestar 1 Mike Dodd / Beadyeye Patrick Gosling / Beadyeye

2020 Polestar 1 David Booth

2020 Polestar 1 David Booth

2020 Polestar 1 David Booth

2020 Polestar 1 David Booth

2020 Polestar 1 David Booth

2020 Polestar 1 Mike Dodd / Beadyeye Patrick Gosling / Beadyeye

2020 Polestar 1 Mike Dodd / Beadyeye Patrick Gosling / Beadyeye

Now, here’s the kicker. The Polestar 1 is an all-round great car, regardless of whether it’s being powered by electrons, fossil fuels or, in its best formula, a combination of both. Oh, it’s not quite as fast as those incredible horsepower and torque figures would seem to promise — it does, despite its much-ballyhooed all-carbon-fibre body, weigh a fairly hefty 2,305 kilograms. 4.2 seconds to 100 kilometres would appear fairly sprightly on initial inspection, but it’s actually a little lethargic compared with other sports cars and GTs that boast similarly impressive horsepower stats. Oh, it’s quick, but if you’re expecting a McLaren GT or Porsche 911 Turbo experience based on the spec sheet, I suspect you’re going be a bit disappointed.

On the other hand, in pretty much every other arena of performance, the Polestar PHEV simply excels. Firstly, even though the twin rear electric motors — 116-hp apiece and 232-hp in total — represent barely half the power available, when you are in its battery-power-only “Pure” mode, the Polestar is plenty sprightly. Top speed on lithium ions alone is 160 km/h, passing acceleration on highway is more than peppy and there’s more than even enough torque, should you be lucky enough to be lost somewhere on Northern California’s Skyline Boulevard, to play silly buggers on twisty mountain roads. And, unlike so many other plug-in hybrids that but pretend to be a true EV, the Polestar 1 really is a battery-powered electric vehicle; in its “Pure” mode, no matter how hard you mash the throttle or how fast you’re going, it remains resolutely emissions free. At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, you could go weeks without once engaging the gas engine.

Suave and sophisticated yet still very much Scandinavian

However, if you do turn to the Polestar’s phasers-set-to-kill, full “Power” mode, things get decidedly more serious. First, the twice-blown 2.0-litre four kicks in an extra 326-hp. Then an integrated starter-generator — yes, there’s a third electric motor connected directly to the crankshaft — kicks in another 71 hp. Blend all of them together — one super- and turbocharged gas engine, two electric motors and one integrated starter motor — and you have one 619-horsepower, all-wheel-drive, torque-vectoring supercar.

It is this last that is perhaps the Polestar 1’s outstanding feature. Its zero emissions capability was expected thanks to those aforementioned 34 kilowatt-hours of battery. Ditto for its straight-line performance; it’s hard to say no to 619 horses whether they be electric, gas fed or, as in this case, an often-varying combination of the two.

But the Polestar 1’s exemplary comportment was completely unexpected. Oh sure, it has way-trick Ohlins suspension and a chassis rigid enough to serve as bridge buttress. But they, in isolation, are hardly an ironclad guarantee of exemplary road-holding. Rather it is the tuning of said suspension, a near perfect balance — those 34 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity are split into three pieces to promote optimum weight distribution — and some really pretty nifty torque vectoring in the rear that has the Polestar 1 clipping apexes as sharpish as some supercars.

Tight hairpins or long sweepers, the 1 held its line with equal aplomb. Gently feather six-piston Akebonos into a classic, long-arc cornering line or just slam the damned thing in a classic point and squirt, the Polestar just shrugs it all as barely worth a sweat. As Polestar’s commercial project leader, Sofia Björnesson, explains, the 1’s torque vectoring doesn’t work by slowing down the inside rear wheel — as it does on lesser combustion-engined cars — but by speeding up the outside wheel, thereby helping acceleration while also getting the car to turn a tighter line. Two of the best handling luxury cars of recent vintage — Porsche’s Taycan and now the Polestar 1 — are battery-powered; there must really be something to this electric torque vectoring stuff.

As if outright speed wasn’t enough, the Polestar 1 is also a model of sophistication. Its eight-speed automatic transmission is as smooth-shifting as any in the business. The gasoline engine is devoid of vibration and harshness that it’s almost impossible to detect when it kicks in. And those Ohlins shock absorbers, so lauded for their race-track proven handling prowess, prove quite compliant as well.

Indeed, seeing as how the Polestar 1 is also quite easy on the eyes, beautifully finished inside and commendably quiet, I could only really find two faults. The first — and this is its only failing from a pure practicality point of view — is a truly tiny trunk. Cargo capacity is, in fact, just 125 litres. The saddlebags and topcase on my Suzuki motorcycle carry more than that. Polestar claims that a set of golf clubs will fit back there, but that’s assuming you don’t swing a Callaway Big Bertha. The Polestar 1’s cargo carrying capacity is literally dwarfed by a Miata.

The second hole in the Polestar’s armour is the infotainment system. Unlike the recently-unveiled all-electric Polestar 2, which incorporates Android Automotive’s latest full operating system, the 1 still runs Volvo’s old Sensus system. Three years ago, Sensus might have been described as a sophisticated and futuristic, if oft-time quirky, man/machine interface. In light of all that’s come since — Mercedes’ MBUX, the latest Audi MMI system and the aforementioned Android Automotive — it now seems painfully outdated and not nearly worthy of such a fantastic automobile. Oh, there is one more thing: The Polestar 1, in Canada, will set you back $199,000. No that’s not a typo; this is a Volvo — or, at least Volvo-adjacent — that will set you back 200 large.

The crazy thing is I think it’s worth it. Suave and sophisticated yet still very much Scandinavian — that should be read practical and pragmatic — the Polestar 1 is as convenient as an EV in town, as practical as a traditional gas-fed automobile on the open road and as speedy and sexy as any super pricey gran turismo in any circumstance.

It gets my vote for the luxury car of the year, electric or no.

For more on electric vehicles, listen to Driving’s EV podcast Plugged In.

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