The highlights of 2020 – A wrap-up

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. A well-known idiom, one that’s very fitting when speaking about Polestar’s journey towards more sustainable electric performance. Technically, it’s a journey without end. There will always be new innovations being made, new technologies being developed, and new materials to experiment with. And given that our destination is “more sustainable electric performance”, we’re constantly looking to improve. As with all journeys, it’s worthwhile to look back and go over the territory that’s been covered. The highlights. Here are Polestar’s from 2020.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. A well-known idiom, one that’s very fitting when speaking about Polestar’s journey towards more sustainable electric performance. Technically, it’s a journey without end. There will always be new innovations being made, new technologies being developed, and new materials to experiment with. And given that our destination is “more sustainable electric performance”, we’re constantly looking to improve. As with all journeys, it’s worthwhile to look back and go over the territory that’s been covered. The highlights. Here are Polestar’s from 2020.

2020 highlights

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To create a more sustainable future, we need to be honest about the environmental impacts of our products. And when we say “we”, we mean the entire automotive industry. So, we published our LCA report and the methodology used, in order to encourage greater transparency across our industry.

The first high point of 2020 was delivering our electric performance hybrid to customers, completing the transition of Polestar 1 from idea to reality. We’d previously hosted customers at our headquarters in order to provide test drives in full Polestar fashion, and each one came away even more excited to take ownership of Polestar 1.

We wanted to provide an environmentally friendly, precedent-setting experience for our global media test drives. When the pandemic occurred, that gave us the final push that we needed to throw a test drive event unlike any other. And the response was amazing.

It had to be from the year 2040. It had to embody the future direction of Polestar’s design language. It had to solve a problem or address an issue. And it had to look cool. The winners of the inaugural Polestar Design Contest did all this, and more.

2020 saw Polestar spaces opening in cities all across the globe. While never conventional (the openings saw the cutting of a golden seatbelt, for instance) we had to get truly creative when the pandemic hit. These space openings were unquestionably a high point of 2020, and a further expansion of the Polestar universe.

We wanted to tackle the safety question in a more open way. We wanted to create a dialogue where people could have their concerns addressed and questions answered. And when the pandemic hit, we decided to do it online. Our safety webinar, filmed in our HQ showroom and featuring a panel of Polestar experts, was a success and a high point of the past year.

The pixel LED headlights of Polestar 2 enable optimal illumination by automatically shading out oncoming cars, meaning that the high beams need never be turned off. The fact that they’re capable of unique welcome and farewell sequences is a bonus. These origami-inspired, highly responsive headlights are a talking point and unique feature of Polestar 2.

“We were both aiming to go to the Geneva Motor Show with fully four-seater cars, with no b pillars, with integrated seatbelts in the front seats,” says Christian von Koenigsegg. “There’s something in the water in Sweden!” On the west coast, where both Koenigsegg and Polestar are located, that’s definitely true. And since we both call this area home, we decided to meet up.

We thought of it as “bringing Precept to the people”. The Geneva Motor Show 2020, one of our favourite venues for real-life reveals, had been cancelled, and with it our plans to give people an up close and personal look at our “commitment car”. So, we put all that material online instead, giving people the chance to deep dive into Precept from their homes.

Precept is our answer to some pressing questions facing our society. Featuring sustainable and upcycled materials, a more intuitive infotainment system, and the next step in Polestar’s design language, Precept is the near future of electric mobility. So, we’re putting it into production.

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2020 highlights

LCA report

Polestar 1 delivery

Polestar 2 media test drives

Design contest

Space openings

Safety webinar

Pixel LED headlights

Koenigsegg collaboration

Precept launch

Precept production announcement