There’s a new hot car on the block: a plug-in hybrid electric with 600 horsepower and gorgeous looks from… Volvo? Well, sort of. Polestar Cars is a joint-venture by Volvo and Geely, Volvo’s parent company.

4 Surprise! Hot Volvos Aren’t New

Given Volvo’s reputation as the maker of boxy but good cars, you’d be forgiven if you thought they only built A-to-B transportation. But that’s missing so much.

From the late 1940s-on, Volvos have been racing – and winning. Their first rally title came from a talented driver and a tough, little PV444 in 1958. In the 1990s, it was the Volvo 850’s turn to beat up the competition. And the trophies keep coming with wins like the 2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

The Volvo 850 that was giving Euro manufacturers so much trouble in the British Touring Car series in the ‘90s (pictured above) was built, prepped and raced by Flash Engineering – the company that would become Polestar when Jan “Flash” Nilsson left in 2004. They won the first two years of the Swedish Touring Car Championship and placed 2nd four of the next five years. So the speed pedigree is there.

Volvo purchased Polestar in 2015, and hotter versions of their regular cars started appearing at dealers in 2016. From there, it was only a small leap for Polestar to become Volvo’s high-performance brand – leading their move to electric power.

Now that you know why the car makes sense, the only question remaining is whether it’s a good car. Let’s take a look:

3 The Polestar 1 Packs Plenty of Power

300 horsepower was once the unofficial threshold for performance cars. Today you can get that in a Camry. Or minivan.

500 horsepower is the new benchmark, and the Polestar blows past it. How far depends on who you ask. Car & Driver reports 591 hp. Polestar Cars claims 600 hp. And Road & Track says 619. Whatever the true output, it’s certainly more than enough to have fun with. As is how it puts the power down.

A turbo- and supercharged 4-cylinder linked to a crank-mounted electric motor transfers 397 horsepower (or 375, depending on who you believe) through the front wheels. In the rear, two electric motors each drive a wheel with a combined 232 horsepower. Or maybe it’s 222. Who knows? But the number everyone seems to agree on is 4.2. That’s how many seconds it takes to go from 0-60. Mostly because the front wheels struggle for traction and the rear motors don’t have enough power to make up for it at low speeds. But from a rolling start, and above 30mph, the Polestar 1 simply flies.

2 Gorgeous Body

There’s no denying that the Polestar 1 looks fantastic. Based on the 2013 concept car by Volvo’s Chief Design Officer Thomas Ingenlath (and CEO of Polestar Cars), it’s clearly related to the current crop of Volvos. Yet a discerning eye will also note similarities to the Audi S5 and Dodge Challenger in its muscular stance, high beltline, and low roof. And the nicely raked rear window gives it a hint of Mustang fastbacks new and old. Still, the Thor’s Hammer headlight design cements it as a Volvo.

Where it departs from Volvo’s lineup: Polestar turned to carbon fiber for the sides, doors, hood, trunk lid, and entire roof structure. That shaved 500 lbs off the same elements made of steel and lowered the center of gravity for better handling without sacrificing strength – or the design aesthetic.

1 And Drives Like A Dream

While most of us will only be able to appreciate the Polestar 1 from photos or a chance sighting on the road, a lucky few will be able to slip behind the wheel for a more intimate experience. And lucky is the right word. Because, by all accounts, this car is as satisfying to pilot as it is to peer at.

How did Polestar make a two-and-a-half ton porker feel light on its wheels? 1) A near 50/50 weight balance. 2) Manually adjustable dampers from Öhlins that let you tweak the handling to your heart’s content, but are perfectly set from the factory. 3) A carbon fiber “dragonfly” that “radically improves torsional stiffness at one of the critical points in the body structure, between the middle of the floor and rear construction,” as Polestar says. And 4) trick, rear-wheel torque vectoring that comes courtesy of planetary gear sets linked to the rear motors that deliver exactly the right amount of power to each rear wheel to ensure maximum grip and cornering stability.

Okay, But Should You Buy One?

The Polestar 1 is beautiful. Quick. Rare. But it’s also expensive. Like, waterfront condo in Myrtle Beach expensive. So before rushing to the dealership to place your order, a little cross-shopping might be in order. You wouldn’t want to pull into the driveway, see your neighbor’s new ride and immediately regret dropping 150 large. That just wouldn’t do.

The two closest competitors are the Acura NSX and Porsche Taycan Turbo. They cost within spitting distance of each other. They’re all-wheel-drive. They’re either fully-electric or hybrid-electric. And you can’t go wrong with any of them. But depending on your personality, it’s possible to go more right.

NSX has a racy mid-engine appearance. Taycan has the performance pedigree. Yet the 1 has the mystique -- without the low-rent interior of the Acura or the range anxiety of the Porsche. And that makes it the real winner here.

So, yes. If you’re in the market for a car like this you should buy one in a way that seems just right for a 600 hp performance coupé, which is to say: quickly. One-third of the total production is already spoken for.