Polestar is to Volvo what AMG is to Mercedes but you would think that the Polestar brand is a performance department embedded deep within Volvo. It isn’t but it is now because Volvo has bought the performance tuning and Swedish racecar maker ‘keys and all’. Volvo CEO CEO Hakan Samuelsson declared “We have decided to bring this experience to more Volvo drivers, placing the full resources of Volvo behind the development of Polestar”. Volvo expect demand for Polestar tuned performance cars to more than double for 2015 from a target of 750 units to 1,500. The Polestar tuning package is available on the S60, V60 and XC60 the S60 for example has a 5-cylinder, 350bhp engine that is capable of reaching 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds. Polestar tuned cars are popular in the UK, America and curiously Australia, Volvo’s purchase of Polestar doesn’t include the company’s racing division. Polestar has always worked exclusively with Volvo the closer union will also see the development of Polestar branded plug-in hybrids. Volvo is currently owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group which is a Chinese company headed up by a billionaire Li Shufu who bought what was a struggling brand from Ford nearly five years ago. But Volvo has flourished since being sold off by Ford and the company is aiming to reach annual sales of 800k by the end of the decade up from a target of 500k cars sold for 2015.