Volvo swaps six-cylinder engine for a more powerful Drive-E 2.0-liter.

Good news for fans of the S60 and V60 Polestar as Volvo has decided to expand market availability from the previous 13 to 47 countries. In order to meet what will obviously be a significantly increased demand, Volvo has plans to double annual production of the two performance models from 750 to 1,500 units.

The good news continue as the Polestar-tuned duo now packs more punch after the engineers swapped the 350-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine for a four-cylinder turbocharged and supercharged 2.0-liter Drive-E. While this may seem like a downgrade, the engine has a bigger turbocharger compared to the regular T6 and also comes with a larger air intake, new camshafts, and a higher capacity fuel pump.

As a result of all these modifications, the Volvo S60 and V60 by Polestar now have 367 horsepower (270 kilowatts), a healthy increase of 17 hp (12.5 kW) compared to the previous models. However, the bad news is torque has decreased from 369 pound-feet (500 newton meters) to 347 lb-ft (470 Nm). The engine works with a new eight-speed Geartronic automatic gearbox optimized by Polestar which sends the power to a BorgWarner four-wheel drive system.

Just like before, the Polestar pair has an electronically-limited speed of 155 mph (250 kph), but the sprint to 62 mph (100 kph) has decreased by 0.2s to 4.7s. The boost in performance was achieved not only by adding more horsepower, but also by putting the cars on a diet. Without going into details, Polestar says it was able to shave off a total of 44 pounds (20 kilograms) and improved weight distribution by cutting front axle load by 53 lbs (24 kg).

Even though the cars are all about performance, Volvo mentions the Polestar duo has a combined fuel consumption of just 7.8 liters / 100 km with equivalent CO2 emissions of 179 g/km. The new model year also comes with fresh 20-inch lightweight wheels, 371-mm slotted brake discs, and a recalibrated electro-assisted power steering.

Source: Volvo, Polestar

Gallery: More powerful Volvo S60, V60 Polestar available in 47 markets