Polestar Precept, up close and virtual
The plan of taking Polestar Precept to the people was paused. The Geneva International Motor Show, our favourite forum for real-life reveals, was cancelled this year. With that, we had to accept that our plan to show people the Precept, up close and in person, wasn’t going to happen. At least, not yet.
But the Precept was never meant to be a car show curiosity. It’s essentially a template for future Polestar cars, a vision of where we’re going, realised in innovative materials and a distinctive design. It’s Polestar’s future on four wheels.
So, we took a different approach. We brought Precept to people’s screens instead, detailing the details in a number of different ways, which can be seen here. Our Head of Design, Maximilian Missoni, met digitally with various publications to talk them through Precept, from design to materials and everything in between.
“In terms of the product we start with the materials, their origin, their production process and their recycling capabilities,” he states in an interview with Forbes. “We wanted to find a way to give these natural materials such as flax fibers a modern and technical context, but still reveal their natural textures and structures.” This can be seen in the interior of the Precept, where the ampliTex™ flax panels created by Bcompare backlit to highlight and showcase their unique construction and attributes.
Polestar Precept isn’t just to showcase sustainable materials, however. It’s also a declaration of both our aspirations and our priorities, establishing a framework that every future Polestar car can adhere to. “We have a chance to start from a clean sheet of paper in terms of what our products should be and build on our belief that the automotive world will change dramatically,” Missoni explains when discussing the design and overall concept behind the Precept.
It also leaves us free to explore different solutions from a purely electric perspective. “Aerodynamics is important in car design, all the more so when it translates into kilometres of range,” says Missoni when speaking to Ars Technica. “So that's why, with the Precept, we wanted to show off and introduce our features and our ideas when it comes to optimizing the airflow around the vehicle. So a lot of those things you will see popping up in future Polestars, like the air curtain and aeroblade.” The aeroblade, extending the rear to enhance the aerodynamics and “create a free-flowing vortex behind the car”, also happens to be Missoni’s favourite detail.
Other distinctive details of the Precept get this same treatment. The SmartZone is the Polestar take on the area traditionally occupied by a grille, named so because it houses a number of sensors and other technology. The lidar, however, is found on the roof, encased in a pod placed at the top of the car to ensure maximum coverage. “We’re not trying to hide these sensors,” says Missoni in an interview with Autoblog. “We’re celebrating them and showing them off.” The lack of a rear windscreen is another, having replaced it with a camera to maximise headroom, optimise airflow and to allow the trunk to open to a much larger degree.
The people may not be able to come face-to-SmartZone with the Precept just yet. In the meantime, we’ve brought it to their screens.
