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2021 Polestar 1 Special Edition brings the gold standard

Sweden's stunning plug-in-hybrid luxury coupe will be even harder to miss in this matte finish.

Chris Paukert Former executive editor / Cars
Following stints in TV news production and as a record company publicist, Chris spent most of his career in automotive publishing. Mentored by Automobile Magazine founder David E. Davis Jr., Paukert succeeded Davis as editor-in-chief of Winding Road, a pioneering e-mag, before serving as Autoblog's executive editor from 2008 to 2015. Chris is a Webby and Telly award-winning video producer and has served on the jury of the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. He joined the CNET team in 2015, bringing a small cache of odd, underappreciated cars with him.
Chris Paukert
2 min read
2021 Polestar 1 Special Edition - front 3/4 view
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2021 Polestar 1 Special Edition - front 3/4 view

This rolled gold coupe is ready to bullion and on and on.

Polestar

The Polestar 1 is already one of the most striking cars to spot on the road these days, and for 25 fortunate -- and well-heeled -- customers, this six-figure plug-in hybrid coupe is about to become even more jaw-dropping. Announced Monday at the 2021 Auto Shanghai expo, aka the Shanghai Motor Show, this is the 2021 Polestar 1 Special Edition, which is unsubtly marked out by its matte gold paint.

The Special Edition's look-at-me matte skin should tie in nicely with the Polestar 1's existing gold-colored design touches, which include the finishes on the adjustable Öhlins dampers and the seatbelts. The Special Edition is fitted with matching matte Akebono brake calipers that nestle beneath 21-inch black wheels. Inside, color-matched stitching picks up the theme.

The 609-horsepower Polestar 1 coupe has already been available in a surprisingly large range of matte paints. Five low-gloss hues, Snow, Magnesium, Osmium, Midnight and Space (black), are all already available to order for $5,000 extra (the same colors are available in traditional metallic paint if matte's restrictive hand-wash-only finish isn't your thing).

2021 Polestar 1 Special Edition gives us the gold shoulder

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This Special Edition model from Volvo's premium spinoff brand will carry a similar $5,000 premium, a Polestar spokesperson tells Roadshow. That option price sits atop the standard model's already eye-watering $156,600 MSRP (including $1,600 delivery fee). At launch, Polestar announced plans to build just 1,500 examples of this six-figure, carbon-fiber-bodied PHEV over three years. Production is slated to end later this year, with just 125 slots of the final 500 reservations being earmarked for US consumers. 

These gold Special Edition models will be first come, first served, so as many as 25 examples could come to the US and Canada, and as few as zero could land on our shores.