The Polestar 1 sports coupe is getting plenty of headlines, and justifiably so. As the first model to be offered under the newly-minted sub-brand, the 1 has captivated the industry, largely due to how good the 2+2 gran tourer looks at first glance. Now it appears that the 1 isn’t just a looker; it’s also going to be a thorn in the side of bank accounts as it’s been reported that the coupe will cost in the neighborhood of €130,000 to €150,000. Do the math, and that converts to around $154,000 to $178,000. Welp.

Adding to the curiosity is the purchase process behind the 1. Apparently, owning the sports coupe isn’t as simple as buying it outright. According to Volvo spokesman Johan Meissner, all Polestar cars, including the 1 sports coupe, “will be offered on a comprehensive subscription basis that will cover depreciation, insurance, and routine maintenance.” In simplest terms, Polestar could be utilizing Volvo’s “Care by Volvo” subscription service instead of simply selling the 1 sports coupe outright. Meissner did add that for “competitor comparative reasons,” the indicative target price of the 1 would sit in the aforementioned price range. At this point, there’s still no specific roadmap on how Polestar plans to sell the 1, but based on the word on the street, it looks like would-be customers will have to at least subscribe to Care by Volvo to get the inside track on going home with one.

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Is it more complicated to own a Polestar 1 through subscription service?

It’s too early to tell at this point considering that the Care by Volvo subscription service hasn’t gotten off the ground yet. So, the judgment is still out on whether it’s going to be easier or harder. That said, Volvo says that the subscription service - and the whole car ownership experience for that matter - will be made easier by Care by Volvo.

The service functions in a number of different ways to back up this claim. For instance, Care by Volvo comes with a ready-negotiated monthly fee that will allow you to get a new car every two years. Items like down payments, insurances, taxes, service fees, and geographical or customer age-related differences will all be moot through the service because car owners won’t have to deal with any of them anymore. That’s going to be up to Volvo to figure out for the owner, making it easier for the latter to simply place an order of a car online and then drive away with it without so much as breaking a sweat.

Care by Volvo is also expected to include a suite of features, including digital concierge services, such as fueling, cleaning, service pick-up, and e-commerce deliveries to the car. Then there’s the standard sharing feature, one of the service’s biggest selling points. We’ve already seen previews of this in the past, but the gist of the concept enables car owners to share their cars with family and/or friends without having to make use of an actual key or fob. A new digital key technology allows people with access to a car to simply drive away with them.

So how does this translate to the Polestar 1? It’s too early to tell at this point, but if Polestar does, in fact, go this route, it’s going to be interesting to see how much it charges in terms of the monthly fee to go with the scope of features that will be included in subscription of the sports coupe. Expect to hear more about Polestar’s plans in the coming months as it tries to iron out all the kinks before ultimately offering the Polestar 1 to the public. Either way, it certainly looks like the sports coupe is not going to come cheap.

References

Polestar 1

Read our full review on the 2018 Polestar 1.

Read more Volvo news.