Polestar 1 First Vehicle Made by Volvo to Have Carbon-fiber Components

Polestar will use carbon fiber components like a chassis “dragonfly” and a few exterior components on the Polestar 1. This would make the vehicle the first model made by the Volvo Car Group to use carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer. It is expected that use of the material will help the vehicle to save over 500 pounds in weight.

Polestar said that carbon fiber which is known for its high strength and light weight will be used in the car’s hood, trunk, side panels, doors and roof structure. The roof of the vehicle is thinner and stronger than the roof of a conventional vehicle which would be made of steel. The use of carbon fiber also make sit possible for the vehicle to have a lower roof line. The car’s dragonfly-shaped chassis component, which is made of carbon fiber straddles both sides of the car and improves torsional stiffness in the middle of the chassis. Only the floorpan is made of steel.

Comemnting on the use of carbon fiber, Christian Samson, head of product creation, said in a statement when the vehicle’s stronger framework is combined with its super-strong body and roof structure, the chassis becomes stiff and communicative chassis, lending the vehicle superb driving characteristics.

Polestar has been putting the Polestar 1 which is positioned as a 2+2 performance grand tourer through extensive tests in Sweden mainly to test the chassis and the car’s planetary gear-enabled torque vectoring. The vehicle is powered by a four-cylinder Drive-E engine which works in tandem with two electric motors driving the rear wheels to give a combined output of a 600 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque from the plug-in hybrid powertrain. In electric only mode, it offers a driving range of 93 miles.