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Weekly Recap: Volvo buys Polestar, makes performance a priority

Volvo is taking its performance business in-house, and the Swedish carmaker announced Tuesday that it bought tuning company Polestar, which has long been known for producing sporty Volvos. The move allows Volvo to ramp up its performance business, and it plans to increase Polestar-branded vehicle sales to 1,000 to 1,500 annually, up from the 750 total projected for this year. The companies have been working together on motorsports projects since 1996. Financial terms of the sale were not released, and Polestar workers will move over to Volvo. Former Polestar owner Christian Dahl will keep control of the Polestar racing team and operate it under a new name. In addition to sales volume, Volvo has ambitious plans for other parts of Polestar, including its aftermarket business. Volvo also said it will use its twin-engine hybrid technology for Polestar models in the future, though specifics and timing were not revealed. Meanwhile, Volvo announced it will offer a run of 265 total Polestars in the United States for the 2016 model year, with S60 and V60s available. "Driving a Volvo Polestar is a special experience. We have decided to bring this experience to more Volvo drivers, placing the full resources of Volvo behind the development of Polestar as the model name for our high performance cars," Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, get nose jobs Automakers tend to refer to light updates as 'facelifts,' and that's exactly what Chevy gave the 2016 Silverado and GMC Sierra. Chevy slightly changed the front end of the truck. Using the one photo released of the new Z71 model as a guide, we can see that the headlights went from a stacked vertical design to single bulbs, and they are set on top of LED running lights. The grille has more body-colored elements instead of shiny metal, and the hood has a new line running down the middle (look really closely). The design theme will be similar across the portfolio, though materials and details will vary, a spokesman said. Some models, like the High Country and LTZ will have more chrome, and the LEDs are only for the upper trims. Chevy also said it will use the eight-speed automatic transmission on more versions of the Silverado, and it updated the MyLink feature to support Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

This is why Tesla doesn't release monthly sales numbers

While most automakers that sell vehicles in the US release a flurry of numbers at the beginning of every month to tell us how many cars and trucks they've sold, Tesla Motors has resisted following the herd. This can be frustrating for those of us who like to look at some cold, hard numbers, but CEO Elon Musk has a good explanation for why he won't play the sales figures game. During a call with investors about Tesla's third-quarter activities – Tesla does reveal its deliveries every three months – Musk was asked by John Lovallo of Bank of America if Musk would ever consider releasing monthly sales numbers? Musk's initial reply was a short: "Um, no. Sorry," but he then explained why: Part of the reason why we don't release the monthly deliveries number is just because it varies quite a lot by region and the media tends to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries. So, we'll have 1,000 cars reach a country one month and none the next month or 100 the next month trickle in because those are the numbers that were registered one month versus the next. People will say, 'oh, wow, Tesla sales drop by a factor of 10. Well, no, the boat arrived in January and not all the cars got registered in January and some got registered in February and in March it's back up again. People assume deliveries are a proxy for demand, and that's not the case. It is the case for other car companies but in our case, it really needs to be parsed into orders and deliveries. And bear in mind, there are a lot of things we could do to amplify orders. Orders is not a true measure of demand, it's just a measure of what we need to do to meet our production and deliver number. In other words, let's not worry about the little ups and downs because we've got plenty of demand and we're selling plenty of cars. See you in February! You can read the full transcript of the call here and listen here.

Tesla exec calls rival EVs 'little more than appliances'

Tesla's Vice President of Business Development Diarmuid O'Connell called the company's competition "little more than appliances" at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI yesterday. "In essence, [mainstream automakers] delivered little more than appliances," O' Connell said. "Now, appliances are useful. But they tend to be white. They tend to be unemotional." According to Automotive News, O'Connell's main critique is that vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 don't deliver enough performance or range to draw the attention of consumers outside of a small group. The solution, in O'Connell's mind, is more power, more range, more excitement and a lower price – that last point is particularly rich coming from an automaker whose cheapest current offering, the Model S 60, costs $66,000 – although the cheaper Model 3 is on the horizon, way out there, somewhere. But some EVs are better than none, O'Connell added. "On balance, I'm happier that [traditional automakers are] doing these cars than not," O'Connell said. "I just wish they would do them better and faster." O'Connell also used his appearance at the Management Briefing Seminars to launch a volley at the Michigan legislature, blaming its opposition to Tesla's direct-sales model for the lack of available EVs in the Wolverine State. "I think if the Michigan Legislature would allow Tesla to sell cars in Michigan, we could probably address [the lack of available electric cars]," O'Connell said. Related Video: