2019 Volvo S60

To help set off the introduction of the Volvo S60 – the last piece of Volvo's top-to-bottom revamp of its lineup — is a special, limited-edition S60 Polestar Engineered. It's not a full Polestar model; it's analogous to the relationship between AMG Line and full AMG models. But it does bring a wealthy of upgrades both for handling and for straight-line speed. It's also very limited in production, at least for the first year. We got the opportunity to drive one of these rare Volvos along with a Volvo S60 R-Design, the latter of which you can read more about, here. What we learned is that the S60 Polestar Engineered certainly has its bright spots, but if you can't get a hold of one, you're actually not missing out on much. Naturally a rare, special automobile demands the looks to match, and the Polestar Engineered subtly alters the S60's already elegant, athletic design. It gets exclusive lightweight 20-inch wheels, black exhaust tips, bright yellow brake calipers, and Polestar badges front and rear. Looking closely, you'll also discover the words "Polestar Engineered" printed on the wheels and exhaust tips. There's a matte gray paint scheme available, too. The changes are almost too subtle, and maybe that's why the name was reprinted all over the car. The interior is much the same, with the whole interior clad in black, punctuated by white stitching and bright yellow seatbelts. That being said, the interior is lovely, bringing the S90's elegant, modern design to a smaller car. It also has the super supportive and cushy seats available on other S60s. The real draw of the Polestar Engineered model, however, is its performance upgrades. The S60 has three main powertrain variants that all use the same basic 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with some amount of forced induction. The base T5 gets a turbocharged version with 250 horsepower. The T6 engine has both a turbocharger and a supercharger to make 316 horsepower. The T8 adds a battery pack and rear-mounted electric motor for an impressive 400 horsepower and 472 pound-feet of torque between that and the supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder from the T6. This is the plug-in hybrid powertrain used in the Polestar Engineered S60. But it's not quite the same, as Polestar retunes the engine computer to get an extra 15 horsepower and 22 pound-feet of torque from the gas engine. Total output for this top-dog S60 is 415 horses and 494 pound-feet of torque. The Polestar Engineered S60's power is accessible via five different drive modes including Pure, Hybrid, Power, All-Wheel Drive and Individual. Pure does its best to keep the car running only on electricity, and can be used at speeds up to 78 mph. This is the mode you need to select to achieve Volvo's estimated pure electric range of 21 miles. It keeps all climate control functions working at a minimum unless overridden, and it adjusts throttle and transmission settings for efficiency. Hybrid is the mode most drivers will probably drive in, …
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