Volvo V40 Polestar on its way

Volvo edges closer to a twin-charged hot hatch to join S60 Polestar performance hero.

A new blue hot hatch is coming off the backburner and into Volvo showrooms. The V40 is the next Polestar target for Volvo with the company's new twin-charged 2.0-litre engine tweaked to 250kW.

A hot hatch has been on the cards at Polestar, Volvo's performance arm, for almost two years. Polestar developed a 1.6-litre turbo race car for the World Touring Car Championship in late 2012. However, that car's development was pulled by Volvo management in favour of the S60, now a production car and the basis for the S60 V8 Supercars campaigner.

Volvo is ready to get back into the V40 variant and Volvo Australia says it will 'happily'' put up its hand to secure examples.

'Australia is a high performance market and we have had very close relationships with Polestar,'' says Volvo Australia spokesman Oliver Peagam.

Pending approval by company bean-counters, the V40 Polestar would take on the Mercedes-Benz A45 (265kW), the coming Audi RS3 (estimated at 280kW) and third-generation Ford Focus RS (260kW).

The V40 would use Volvo's new supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-litre, which powers the European-spec S60 and is planned for the coming XC90 SUV.

In production form, the twin-charger is rated at 228kW but there's much in reserve.

The S60 is available in front-drive and all-wheel-drive in Europe. The V40 is expected to share the Haldex package of the V40 Cross Country.

As part of Volvo's new engine range - dubbed Drive-E - there will be an increasing use of electric motors. The next XC90, for example, may use a 60kW electric motor to power the rear wheels and a transversely mounted petrol engine for the front wheels.

However, that's not likely with the Polestar V40, which for handling reasons would retain a mechanical all-wheel-drive design.

The chassis will also host Polestar's unrated components including adjustable Ohlins dampers and Brembo brakes.

After dipping its toe in the global performance market with exclusive sales in Australia, Polestar has recently branched out globally.

Last month, Volvo began assembling the high-performance S60 and V60 Polestar models on the same production line as its more civilised models.

The same production-line process can be applied to the V40 version to boost volume and control quality.Australia will start deliveries of the global S60 Polestar later this year.