Few things are more fun than a car with a secret. A car that does what it looks like it can do is fine but it rarely gives you a quiet thrill. Driving a car with a secret, though, feels like you’re getting away with something.
I will probably never know what it’s like to crash a Lotus off a concrete jetty into the water and activate submarine mode like Roger Moore. Still, I can say I’ve driven the 2025 Volvo XC60 T8 all-wheel drive (AWD) Polestar Engineered.
It won’t wreck your pursuers with an oil slick sprayed from nozzles behind the license plate but it will serve as a sedate commuter car with a touch of luxury and then, with a few taps on a touchscreen, turn into a performance car no one expects.
You see, the Volvo XC60 is a competent midsize luxury SUV with a buttoned-down, elegant look and a nicely composed ride.
Polestar started as a racing team in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship series. It then became a tuner shop dedicated to raceable Volvos, then a division of Volvo itself. Today, it’s a separate standalone car company building electric cars.
Volvo is headed toward a mostly electric vehicle (EV) future. However, the two companies still work together in the 2025 model year to churn out a small number of high-performance Volvos with the Polestar imprimatur.
I tested one in Vapour Gray with a Charcoal Nappa leather and textile interior and no further options.
For the model I tested, you’d pay $76,545, including $1,295 for delivery. That delivery fee is a relative bargain by 2025 standards.
The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) on the Polestar model is not a bargain. You can get the same sedate commuter experience in an XC60 with 208 fewer horsepower for under $50,000. There’s nothing wrong with that choice. Paying more than 150% of the price you have to pay for this car is an extravagant decision.
What You’re Waiting For
The typical Volvo XC60 gets 247 hp from a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, sending power to all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission — likely plenty for most luxury SUV buyers.
However, the Polestar Engineered version is both more efficient and more fun. Under the hood sits a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine with a turbocharger and a supercharger. It’s a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), adding an electric motor on the rear axle. The combination boasts 455 hp and gets the car from zero-to-60-mph in just 4.5 seconds – fun. It can travel up to 36 miles on electricity alone – efficient.
Polestar has also reworked the chassis for added stiffness, which shows up in cornering – but only if you want it to. The XC60 Polestar Engineered has six drive modes (more than most rivals), ranging from Comfort to Pure (electric only) to Power to Off-Road to, well, Polestar Engineered for all the goods at once.
They’re a bit hard to find – more on that in a moment – but they give you one of the most versatile dial-a-car setups available in any 2025 car. This can be an electric car for a quick, low-impact run to the store, a performance car for a winding road alone, or almost anything in between.
The steering is precise enough for any of those settings, though it never shows the lightning reflexes of a German sports car. Grippy brakes reel it all in comfortably.
Not Flashy, but With Hints of Flash
Polestar’s signature design tweak is a deep gold color, and they’ve sprinkled it tastefully around the XC60.
From the outside, the only hint is gold brake calipers. I’m a fan of subtle hints at power in an SUV, and this fits the bill. There is no need to scream what your car is capable of when, most of the time, you’re using it to run out for groceries, but a subtle visual reminder to those in the know is welcome.
Inside, the gold color appears on the seatbelts and in small bits of dashboard trim. It’s tasteful but bold – an elegant brand of cool.
Proven Interior but Dated User Interface
You know these seats if you’ve been in a Volvo in the last 20 years. They’re as comfortable and adjustable as ever.
Volvo has resisted the urge to build in big, flashy screens. This has pros and cons.
Pros: The separate driver’s instrument screen and central touchscreen are easily visible and ergonomically fluid. You can’t block the view of anything important with the steering wheel. It all works.
Cons: The user interface driving that touchscreen looks state of the art to the Obama years. Just getting to the drive mode settings requires paging into a touchscreen menu. This is the kind of thing you grow used to quickly. If you buy the car, it’s unlikely to bother you for long. However, if you test drive nearly any 2025 rival, you’ll find brighter graphics and need fewer taps.
Last of Its Kind?
The 2025 XC60 Polestar Engineered is not likely to be around much longer.
Volvo has said it will continue to build hybrids alongside EVs into the early 2030s, but not forever. The brand is well on its way to an all-electric future.
Polestar, meanwhile, has moved out of Dad’s house. The company recently unveiled a future product without Volvo roots, the Polestar 4.
To be clear, the brands haven’t announced plans to end their collaboration, but they appear to be drifting apart. I suspect that the days of Polestar-tuned Volvos are numbered.
That’s a pity. Working together, they made this into an excellent everyday car with a secret performance side. There’s something uniquely fun about a Volvo, with that company’s stodgy safety reputation, all-electric range around town, and stealth race credentials.