Polestar is already considering increasing its planned production output in the wake of huge interest for its debut model, Polestar 1.

Just 500 units were planned in the first production run of Volvo's spin-off brand, but since the first renders of the sports coupe were shown last summer, more than 5,000 potential customers have registered an interest.

'We are looking at whether we could do a higher volume than 500 units a year. We are checking that out,' Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Automotive News Europe. 'I think there is potential to go to two shifts.'

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Of course Volvo and its parent company Geely has the ability to produce cars in greater numbers, but Polestar's new factory in Chengdu, China, won't be completed until later this year. What's more, the car's carbonfibre construction means that it is rather difficult to produce on the scale of more conventional cars.

'We have a great deal of respect for the challenge we face as we bring our carbonfibre production into reality,' Ingenlath said. 'It will be a rather slow start, but it is needed for this complicated product.'

The car will actually be based on the platform used for the Volvo S90 saloon, but its carbonfibre body bonded to a steel backbone. The method is extremely time-consuming, not to mention expensive – justifying the car's high price, which is expected to be north of £100,000. As well as being the first car produced exclusively by Polestar, it will serve as the brand's halo car. It will also go on to spawn a family of electric cars – the Polestar 2 – will follow in 2019 as a rival to the Tesla Model 3. An electric SUV, which will be called the Polestar 3, will follow in 2020, while the Polestar 4, which is expected to be a Polestar 1-based convertible of some sort, will come later.

The new Polestar 1 will be seen in the flesh for the first time at next month's Geneva Motor Show, with orders beginning in the spring.

Gallery: 2018 Polestar 1 official photos