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For its first Polestar Day, the Volvo-owned company (in turn part of the Chinese Geely Group) chose a shed for aircraft maintenance at the Santa Monica airport in California: during the event, intended for investors, analysts and media, the manufacturer celebrated its positive results, showed interesting prototypes and announced innovative solutions for upcoming models. We were able to admire in person the Polestar 3 SUV and the Polestar 4 SUV coupé, both arriving next year, and take a preview look at the elegant 5 coupé, which derives from the Precept concept presented in 2020: it will use new ecological materials and it will be equipped with a super-fast charging battery.
Important partnerships for growth
The first part of the event was dedicated to the announcements on the recently presented financial results: Polestar expects to reach cash flow break even as early as 2025. A series of recent agreements were also announced such as the one with Tesla, for the use of Superchargers in the United United States and Canada, the one with the Korean SK On for the batteries and above all the start of production of the Polestar 4 as early as next week in China and in the near future also in Korea thanks to an agreement with Renault Korea Motors and Samsung. Furthermore, production of the Polestar 3 for the local market and Europe is expected from next summer in the United States. The fact of having the Geely Group behind it allows it to develop a network of partnerships that give it great technological and productive dynamism, in a market, such as that of electric mobility, which has much faster development times than those to which it the automotive world has become accustomed to us so far.
A range that takes shape quickly
The Polestar 2 sedan has already been available in our country for a few months, the Polestar 3 SUV, and what the company defines as the Polestar 4 SUV-coupé, are arriving next year: the latter is positioned among the top two in terms of size and price. 2025 will instead be the year of the Gran Turismo Polestar 5 and the still mysterious Polestar 6: a convertible was on display at the event but, speaking with the management, we think it is more likely that the company will aim for the compact market.
Technology and innovation enable a paradigm shift
Lots of technology and innovation promised by Polestar; the announcement that struck us most is the one relating to fast charging applied to the world of electric cars: thanks to the partnership with StoreDot the promise is to be able, already from the Polestar 5, to add 160 km (100 miles) of autonomy in just 5 minutes. This solution called The great advantage of this technology is that it can be implemented in current battery production systems without having to create new ones, thus reducing time and costs. According to the manufacturer, in the not too distant future it will be possible to create batteries capable of providing 160 km of charging in just two minutes.
Autonomous driving on the horizon
More partnerships and more technological accelerations: the “Chauffeur” autonomous driving system that the company is already implementing in the Polestar 4, in addition to the standard one (SuperVision), for example, was created by exploiting Luminar’s lidar systems and the management of the Israeli Mobileye. Unfortunately it was not possible to test it live but the goal of the three companies is to offer “eyes-off” and “point-to-point” autonomous driving on the motorway, as well as “eyes-on” automated driving in other environments such as city ones. Obviously these solutions will have to comply with the regulations of the different countries in which they will be proposed and this is currently the most complex obstacle to overcome.
Great attention to sustainability
Polestar’s soul is Swedish, so its great attention to sustainability should not be surprising. The company has been sharing data on the carbon footprint on the complete life cycle of its cars since 2020: in recent days it announced that the Polestar 4 is the manufacturer’s car with the lowest carbon footprint, the Single motor version is in fact equipped with a carbon footprint of 19.4 tCO2e (19.9 tCO2e for the Single motor Long range and 21.4 tCO2e for the Long range Dual motor). Aluminum represents 23-24% of the footprint, while steel and iron constitute 20% and battery modules represent the highest share of the carbon footprint of materials production and refining and is equal to 36 -40%.
For the interiors, the company uses composite materials of natural fibers and plastic made by Bcomp and also used in Formula 1: the appearance is that of a fabric, but the rigidity and above all the lightness are similar to those of carbon fibre. Polestar’s ambitious goal is to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2030.
Still from a green perspective, the manufacturer is launching several vehicle-to-grid (V2G) projects both in Gothenburg, Sweden, and in California. Bi-directional charging technology allows Polestar 3 cars to not only charge, but also discharge energy from the batteries to individual homes or the grid. To help manage the V2G system, Polestar is developing a virtual power plant (VPP) that calculates the collective capacity of grid-connected batteries and initiates charging or discharging based on demand and optimizing battery longevity. In countries like Sweden, the adoption of this solution allows owners to monetize their vehicle while it is parked, without the need for any intervention.
Polestar 5 will be based on the bounded aluminum platform, the powertrain will be able to develop a maximum power of 650 kW (884 hp), a torque of 900 nm and the batteries will obviously be integrated into the lower part of the body to further increase torsional rigidity .