Polestar, the Sweden-based all-electric car company that makes the Polestar 2 fastback and Polestar 3 performance SUV, has the noble goal of creating a truly climate-neutral car by 2030, a feat that can be accomplished by not just planting trees somewhere in the Amazon, but by digging deep into the supply chain and searching for industry partners that employ zero-emissions techniques.
This means lithium mines that don’t use fossil fuels, processing plants where the furnaces don’t emit toxic greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, paint factories that have zero emissions, and so on.
The plan was initially unveiled in 2021 more as a statement than anything else, but now Polestar is back with some concrete and well-known partners in this endeavor. According to the company’s press release, it has partnered with Vitesco Technologies, Schloetter, Autoneum, Stora Enso, TMG Automotive, Granges, Borgstena, and Stena Aluminum.
Gallery: 2023 Polestar 3
These companies’ specialties include electrical inverters, electroplating, interior and exterior materials, renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden construction and paper, coating and textiles, flat rolled aluminum, knit and woven materials, and recycled aluminum. In other words, a lot of the components needed for a brand-new car have been sustainably sourced, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
To this effect, Polestar continues to search for partners on raw materials, bio-based chemicals, polymers, electric components, noble gasses, and other base material production, saying that with its goal of delivering a climate-neutral car by 2030, signing these partnerships is “critically urgent.”
“My conviction in the success of the Polestar 0 project is reaffirmed every time we meet with new collaborators. It’s clear that there is immense potential to tap into around the globe. Achieving the seemingly impossible is never a one-man show. It is only through collective action that we can achieve the breakthroughs that truly make a difference and find the transformative solutions that go beyond the car industry,” says Hans Pehrson, Head of the Polestar 0 project.
Polestar currently makes the Polestar 2 fastback at its factory in China and will start manufacturing the Polestar 3 performance SUV at its brand-new facility in Ridgeville, South Carolina. The company sold an estimated 51,500 EVs worldwide last year, with roughly 21,000 getting to customers in the fourth quarter of 2022. For this year, the Swedish company, which sits under Volvo’s umbrella and subsequently under the Chinese firm Geely, plans to sell 80,000 units.
