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Volvo S60 Polestar entering limited production in Australia [w/video]

The Volvo S60 Polestar Concept may be entering limited production in Australia and, depending how the Aussies take to this Swedish super sports sedan, could then be made available worldwide. The news comes from Austrlia's GoAuto, which claims to have received early info from its sources inside Volvo and its tuning/motorsport arm, Polestar.
Polestar released a short teaser video this week (watch it below) of what appears to be the S60 Polestar Concept clipping the snowy apex of an ice track's turn. The only information given with the teaser were the words "Limited Edition. Soon in Australia." Unveiled last June, the S60 Polestar concept has since made the rounds at auto shows, visited Jay Leno's Garage, played on the track with its future competition, and even secured a home for itself with a buyer who reportedly is paying Volvo some $300,000 to own it.
The S60 Polestar Concept is about the meanest machine one can imagine making out of Volvo's sports sedan. Packing 508 horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque from its heavily modified T6 engine, then routing those revolutions through a six-speed manual transmission to all four wheels, the S60 Polestar is said to cover the sprint to 62 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds. A lower and wider body, brakes by Brembo, suspension bits by Ohlins and a diet to delete some weight make this car a serious issue for M3 and C63 AMG owners everywhere. GoAuto's sources say the production version's performance will be dialed back a bit from the concept's, but we'll have to wait until Volvo and Polestar make this sedan's production official to find out by how much.

Volvo will start testing wireless charging with XC40 taxis

Volvo announced it will start testing wireless charging systems with its Volvo XC40 Recharge electric SUVs. It's doing so by creating a small fleet of XC40 Recharge taxis for Cabonline, the largest cab operation in the Nordic nations. The testing in Volvo's hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, will last for three years, and Volvo notes that the driving conditions will involve 12 hours a day of driving with cars racking up 100,000 kilometers (about 62,000 miles) per year. The charging stations come from American company Momentum Dynamics. They're embedded into the pavement of the Volvos' parking spaces and begin charging automatically when parked correctly (which is aided by the on-board surround-view camera). The charging speed is 40-kW, which is close to the maximum charging speed of many electric cars' on-board chargers when connected to a DC station. Interestingly, Momentum Dynamics lists systems capable of charging speeds as high as 450 kW on its website. Volvo did not make any announcements regarding future availability of wireless charging. We would imagine the results of this testing will affect whether the company intends to make it a factory offering. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Wagons make a bit of a comeback, with new models, sales on the rise

Consider this an official invitation to hop on the wagon bandwagon. There's still tons of room because, well, it's a wagon (and market share is still extremely small). But according to new data, the segment is growing. According to a report from Bloomberg, using data from Edmunds.com, roughly 211,600 Americans purchased wagons in 2018. That is technically down from the 237,600 sold in 2017, but wagon sales in the U.S. are up 29 percent from where they were five years ago. It's also the third year in a row that wagon sales broke the 200,000 mark. The sales trends have been somewhat representative of the availability of wagons. New models have debuted during the past 5 years and therefore offer more opportunity at more brands to buy wagons. In addition to more modest cars such as the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen, several luxury and performance brands are offering wagons today, such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo and Buick. (Bloomberg's headlines make the point that "crossovers are for the Kardashians," and wagons are just, well, classier.) This uptick in brand-name availability, as well as extremely well-executed design on most of the wagons currently available, has helped increase the segment's desirability. That, and its ability to better accomplish the same tasks at hand while standing out from the crossover and SUV crowd. Still, the posted numbers represent a small fraction of the total vehicles sold. According to the data, wagons only held a 1.4 percent market share in 2017, the segment's best recent year. Wagons hold a steadfast place in America's past, and they're writing an interesting new story. With the downturn in traditional cars, they may continue to create an unexpected narrative. Related Video: News Source: Bloomberg, Edmunds Audi BMW Buick Volkswagen Volvo Wagon station wagon