What's the news?
Volvo's Polestar division - which began life as a traditional performance car arm of the Swedish company but which has since become Volvo's 'electric performance brand' - has created a new upgrade kit for the impending US-built S60 four-door.
Specifically, the 'upgraded electrified performance' offer, which is called Polestar Engineered, relates to the T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid version of the S60, which will be built exclusively at Volvo's new plant in Charleston, South Carolina - making the mid-sized saloon the first car from the Swedish company to be built in the States.
The regular S60 family will be revealed in a week's time at the inauguration of the Charleston facility but Volvo has already said Polestar Engineered will also be available on its other 60-series T8 PHEV models, the V60 and the XC60 SUV.
Polestar Engineered focuses on the S60 T8's wheels, brakes, suspension and ECU. Kicking us off, we've got lightweight but big alloy wheels with an open design, to best show off the gold-painted brake callipers behind; these will become a hallmark of Polestar Engineered components. Polestar emblems, black chrome exhaust pipes and golden seatbelts (cool...) also identify T8 Volvos with the electric upgrades. Those callipers are not just for show, however, as they are Brembo monobloc, slotted items that are optimised for rigidity, while the pads fitted to them have increased heat tolerance.
Elsewhere, the Polestar Engineered all-round-multilink suspension incorporates Öhlins shock absorbers with a dual-flow valve, allowing stiffening in the springs and dampers while preserving comfortable ride qualities. The Polestar Engineered package also includes a strut brace, both this and the dampers being shared with the Polestar 1 sports car.
Finally, the Polestar Engineered package gives the PHEV's 2.0-litre petrol-electric drivetrain little boosts of 15hp and 30Nm, lifting the overall outputs from 400- to 415hp and 640- to 670Nm. Volvo claims that these software upgrades improve both fuel consumption and 'emissions-neutral' performance (i.e., the S60 T8's perkiness in EV running), while also refining the shift patterns of the automatic eight-speed gearbox.
Anything else?
"Electric cars are our future," said Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO at Volvo Cars. "Today starts a new era of Volvo electrified models enhanced by Polestar's performance engineering prowess. This strategy is firmly grounded in our shared belief in an electric future for the car industry."
And Henrik Green, senior vice-president of R&D and Volvo Cars, added: "The new S60 T8 Polestar Engineered is an electrified car that does what you want it to. All components have been fine-tuned to work together, delivering a responsive and exciting driver's car."