Getting to know Polestar: an exclusive interview

These days, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of the Polestar brand. In 2022, Polestar was one of the top ten best-selling electric vehicle brands in the UK, and for good reason.

With a clear focus on building fully electric vehicles with a minimalistic design, technological innovations, sustainable solutions, and a complete lack of compromise - Polestar is at the forefront of EV design.

With this in mind, we thought it was high time to sit down with Jonathan Goodman, Head of Polestar UK, and find out what's next for Polestar.

Let's get plugged in...

With the success and popularity of the Polestar 2 in the UK, some readers might not be aware of Polestar’s roots - in particular, that Polestar was a racing team for Volvo - can you shed a little more light on the origin story of Polestar?

The name Polestar, as you say was an independent racing team which raced Volvos in the Swedish Touring Car Championships in the nineties. Volvo bought Polestar in 2015 and in 2017 it was established as an independent performance electric car brand. Last year, Polestar was listed on the Nasdaq and today the brand has over 150,000 Polestars on the road in 27 countries globally.

What makes Polestar different from other electric vehicle manufacturers?

The beauty of Polestar as a brand created from a blank piece of paper, is that even today we have no legacy to be concerned about, allowing us to think differently about the way cars are made and sold.

For example, we wanted to put the fun back into buying cars, so we decided to build our retail spaces in inner city locations, not outside of town where car showrooms can feel imposing and daunting to some. Our staff in our Spaces are salaried and not on commission which removes the pressurised selling techniques that make buying a car often an unpleasant experience. Customers order our cars online and we deliver to their home with a full handover which makes it as easy as it could possibly be.

In addition, we place a great focus on the sustainability of our operations and product and provide customers with the transparency to allow them to make a conscious choice about their footprint.

Each of our cars comes with a Lifecycle Analysis which is a document declaring all the raw materials that go into the car, and how you can reduce your carbon footprint, for example, charging with renewable energy such as the electricity mix provided to homes by Octopus. It allows our customers to make an informed decision.

What three words would you use to describe Polestar vehicles?

All our cars are built with Design, Sustainability and Innovation at the core.

With a focus on building performance vehicles, it was fascinating to read about The Polestar 0 project - whereby greenhouse gas emissions will be eliminated in every aspect of the manufacturing process. What does this actually look like? And how much does product development need to change to become 0 CO2e?

Polestar 0 is our moonshot goal to produce a car leaving the factory gates with no emissions and with no offsetting by 2030. It is a colossal challenge but something we and - ultimately - our industry need to place greater focus on.

There are tens of thousands of parts in every car, and each one needs to be traced back to source through multiple suppliers, locations and raw materials. Then each process needs to be completely decarbonised.

We can’t do it alone, so we are teaming up with global expert partners with a shared vision. It’s so difficult, it’s been likened to the complexity of the lunar landings in the 1960s. It’s a unique vision in the automotive industry and one we are taking very seriously.

The Polestar 5 prototype was revealed at Goodwood back in 2022 - are there any updates as to when the Polestar 5 will be released to the market? What can drivers expect from the Polestar 5?

In 2024, we will be a three-car company with Polestar 2 and the introduction of Polestar 3 and 4 both SUVs.

Polestar 5 our performance four-door GT which will arrive with us in 2025. It is currently being engineered right here in the UK together with our head office in Gothenburg, Sweden.

At our Mira engineering facility near Coventry, we have around 500 engineers using advanced aluminium technologies to develop the car. We do this here in the UK, as our skilled workforce is among the best in the world. We are all very excited to bring this extraordinary car to the market.

Similarly… the 500 build slots for the Polestar 6 LA Concept edition were quickly reserved! - what’s the latest on this all-electric roadster (and when can we expect to see it in the UK)?

Yes, we will see Polestar 6 in 2026 and work is progressing well on this project.

Many non-EV drivers are waiting for the second-hand market to pick up pace before purchasing their first electric vehicle - is Polestar doing anything in this space to help promote pre-owned vehicles?

We now have over 20,000 Polestar 2s on the road in the UK and it has proven to be enormously popular. We started deliveries in 2020, so we are now just starting to see cars aged three years old coming back into the pre-owned market.

We have a strong programme for customers looking to buy a pre-owned Polestar which is providing access to EV ownership at a lower price point and the customer will still be able to enjoy an online customer experience being able to select, order and finance through our website.

Let’s chat about responsible sourcing - how does Polestar ensure that the raw materials used to create a vehicle are sourced sustainably?

We carefully select our direct material suppliers, performing due diligence screening and risk assessments and placing strict requirements on their operations before signing contracts.

We require all Polestar battery suppliers to produce life-cycle assessments. With blockchain technology, we make high-risk materials traceable, and all suppliers must adhere to our Code of Conduct for Business Partners.

Through production and manufacturing, we conduct audits to check adherence to our human rights values. Should partners be found to fall short of our standards, corrective actions will be put in place.

It goes without saying, but the vehicle battery is the heart (and powerhouse) of any electric vehicle, and with developments in solid-state batteries research progressing, what can we expect to see from future Polestar battery performance?

Battery technology is developing so quickly that we have already introduced faster charging, bigger batteries and, more importantly, more efficient batteries to Polestar 2 this year. This makes real-world benefits for the customer with regard to faster charging and longer range between charging. While I can’t go into the future, we have some very exciting technologies in the pipeline, as you’d expect from us as a brand which places such focus on innovation.

The EV community is filled with individuals looking to share their EV driving experience. Where can Polestar community members go to share advice, discuss Polestar features, and share tips and tricks?

We are very fortunate to have a devoted and loyal customer base, many of whom share their EV experiences online, and particularly when new customers join the Polestar family, advice is on open vend from existing enthusiastic customers. We are keen to foster this, and there are some key Facebook Groups as well as the Polestar Forum, which is a very helpful resource.

Finally - and perhaps most pertinent for anyone looking to buy a Polestar soon - can you explain what Polestar and Octopus Electroverse/Energy are offering their customers until 31st March 2024?

To celebrate our partnership with Octopus and Ohme, for a limited time between 1st October and 31st March 2024, private customers placing a new or used order through polestar.com can choose to receive a complimentary Ohme EV home charger with standard installation or £900 in Octopus Electroverse public charging credit!

This not only helps with the switch to electric with a home charger but also allows customers to take advantage of cheaper tariffs like Intelligent Octopus Go when there is less demand for electricity. All of this makes the switch to electric even more accessible.

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