Development of the Polestar 1 has reached a new milestone, with the announcement that the first prototypes of the high-performance hybrid coupe have now entered production in Sweden. Polestar says the first batch of 34 pre-production prototypes will be used for crash tests, weather testing and on-road assessment.

Construction of the prototypes takes place in a specialized prototype production facility in Gothenburg and is largely done by hand. The pre-production stage also allows Polestar to iron out any kinks before customer cars are built at Polestar's new plant in Chengdu, China, next year.

It's a crucial testing stage since the Polestar 1's carbon-fiber body required the development of new specialized production equipment and construction techniques that will be applied to the production cars.

"The assembly of the VP cars means that the Polestar 1 has taken its next step towards production," said Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar. "This first batch of 34 cars will enable our engineers to tune the finer details of the car, ensuring that the Polestar 1 is perfect when we start to produce customer cars in the middle of next year."

Orders are currently open for the Polestar 1, but the model is in extremely high demand. Back in August, Polestar confirmed 8,000 potential customers are on the waiting list, so you could be waiting a long time since production is capped at 1,500 units per year. Prices start at $155,000 in the US, but Polestar will also offer a subscription service with details to be announced closer to next year's launch.

If you need a refresher, the Polestar 1 uses a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four paired to a couple of electric motors to produce 600 hp and an all-electric driving range of up to 93 miles.