Polestar goes a long way back. Founded in 1996 as Flash Engineering, the Swedish racing team was then rebranded into Polestar Racing. The Gothenburg-based company was elevated to being the official go-faster skunkworks for the Swedish automaker in 2009 under the Polestar Performance moniker. Come 2015, it was purchased outright by Volvo.
Two years later, Polestar became a standalone brand focused on electrification above everything else. But rather than a zero-emission vehicle, their first series-production model came in the guise of a plug-in hybrid. A performance-oriented PHEV, of course, with a serious dash of Chinese influences considering that Volvo Cars is currently owned by the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and chaired by Geely founder Li Shufu.
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