Volvo to roll out Polestar-badged wagon

VOLVO will expand its Polestar-badged performance vehicle line-up with a second model, announcing it will sell a more family friendly V60 wagon alongside the 257kW S60 sedan already on sale here.

Volvo Car Australia managing director Matt Braid confirmed that the Audi S4 Avant-fighting V60 Polestar would join the S60 sedan when the 2015 model-year version landed in local showrooms, either late in 2014 or first thing next year.

While he did not go into specifics about pricing, Mr Braid said the load-lugging version of the Polestar would likely carry a small premium over the sedan equivalent, currently priced from $99,950 plus on-road costs.

As previously reported, Volvo used Australia as a test bed for the S60 Polestar, which was introduced in June last year as a part of a pilot program to determine the model’s viability in global markets.

Just 50 Polestars were made available for the local market as a part of its initial allocation, with 50 more added in April this year as a part of the S60’s mid-life upgrade, which also expanded sales to select markets internationally.

Mr Braid said that the success of the Polestar pilot program had ensured that the 2015 version would be a full production variant and not limited to a small allocation of models.

“I am personally quite proud of the fact that we have been validated by that, the fact the car will now go global to quite a few other markets,” he said.

While the Polestar experiment has been a winner for Volvo, Mr Braid said the company had no plans to expand the performance sub-brand to the V40 small car.

The S60 is powered by a 257kW/500Nm in-line six-cylinder engine and can race from 0-100km/h in just 4.9 seconds before hitting a top speed of 250km/h.

Last month, the Swedish car-maker dropped the price of the S60 Polestar by $10,000 to $99,950, excluding on-road costs, just weeks after rival Audi cut almost $15,000 from its S4 performance sedan to set it at $105,000.

The 245kW/440Nm S4 Avant will be one of the only direct competitors for the V60 Polestar when it eventually arrives here, with Mercedes-Benz’s more hardcore C63 AMG Estate, due to be replaced by a new version sometime next year, positioned above the Swedish-built Euro wagon.