Swedish car maker Polestar is attempting to do something never before done in the 135 year history of the automobile – create a truly carbon neutral car without offsetting.
Typically companies create a carbon neutral product by offsetting the carbon produced during the creation and life of a product. But Polestar wants to take that a step further and ensure there are zero emissions across the entire creation, production and driving life of the car.
READ MORE: Polestar previews its future plans
And it wants to achieve this by the end of the decade, with a 2030 launch date scheduled.
Calling the idea the Polestar 0 project, the Swedish electric vehicle brand acknowledges the challenge is a “moonshot goal” and has created a specific engineering team to try and achieve it. The project will be headed by Hans Pehrson, a former Volvo engineer responsible for the original Volvo C30 Electric model.
READ MORE: How Volvo turned Polestar into its own EV brand
The 30-year industry veteran has begun the task of creating this seemingly impossible vehicle by looking for suppliers who can provide raw materials that are produced carbon neutral. Polestar is also looking for partners from universities, researchers, investors and entrepreneurs who could contribute.
“Achieving climate neutrality is an absolute must for our future for all consumer products,” Pehrson said. “Cars are complex, they consist of tens of thousands of components, and rely on intricate layering of suppliers and sub-manufacturers. Making a car climate-neutral is therefore not only an extremely important challenge but an extremely difficult one. Understanding and accepting the challenge is the first step; getting all the way there will require that we collaborate in ways that have never existed before. This is not a solo mission.”
All this will go on as Polestar will ramp up its presence in the Australian market. The spin-off Volvo brand has set the ambitious target of competing against Porsche and Tesla with an all-new range of EVs.
Having just launched the Polestar 2 locally, attention turns to the new models. First up will be the Polestar 3, a “Luxury Aero SUV” targeting the Porsche Cayenne, which is due to arrive in 2023. Then in 2024 Polestar 4 a “Premium Sport SUV” will land to compete against the Porsche Macan. Finally, for the short-term, is the Polestar 5 arriving in 2024. This will be a “Luxury Sport GT 4-door” that will try and rival the Porsche Panamera and will be based on the company’s Precept concept.
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