We’re on the ground at Polestar Day in Santa Monica, where Polestar is going over its technology strategy for media, investors, and owners, with several new announcements and a chance for ride-alongs in their upcoming Polestar 3 and 4 vehicles.
Hot on the heels of Polestar’s Q3 earnings call yesterday, the company is hosting an event in Santa Monica, California today to showcase its future plans for its vehicle line and business strategy.
Polestar made several announcements this morning already, but we’ll be wandering around all day and hopefully have some updates for you if we learn anything interesting and new. We’ve already been promised ride-alongs in the Polestar 3 and 4 and a demonstration of some of Polestar’s V2G technology.
Until then, here is a list of announcements that were already made this morning:
- Polestar 4 will be built in Korea, with potential trade war implications
- Polestar wants to save the grid with V2G Virtual Power plant trial in CA/Sweden
- Polestar will trial StoreDot’s ~350kW DC-capable battery on Polestar 5 prototype
We’re inside, and the stage is set for the event to begin.
Ingenlath’s presentation mostly includes the news we’ve linked above, a discussion for investors, and recapping recent Polestar news (e.g. the Polestar smartphone).
Now head of design Maximilian Missioni is on stage talking about sustainable material use in current and upcoming Polestar cars. Mentioned heavy use of natural fiber composites, made from flax, to replace plastics in the Polestar 5.
He also said that the Polestar 5 and 6 will be produced in a new factory specializing in Polestar’s new bonded aluminum chassis, a platform that Polestar is designing on its own (as opposed to current cars that are on shared platforms with Geely and Volvo).
Time to walk around now. The Polestar Synergy concept looks cool as heck.
We got a demo of StoreDot’s 350kW-capable battery, which has a flat charging curve of up to 80%, enabling much faster charging than modern vehicles.
Polestar is using sustainable materials for its “Polestar 0” concept, where it wants to have a fully climate-neutral car on the road and purchaseable by 2030. This includes plant-based composites and a really cool “fake” wood that is made by using recycled paper, provided by a Swedish company called PaperShell. We had a great conversation about sustainability with CEO Anders Breitholtz.
Near the end of the event, we finally got a chance to hop in the Polestar 2, 3, and 4 to compare them all on the same route. These were only quick rides in test vehicles, but the suspension on the 3 and 4 seemed much improved from the suspension of the 2, which was a bit harsh.
All three cars were quick and responsive, but a little smoother and less jumpy than a Tesla for example. I personally prefer a maximally responsive pedal, but the Polestars aren’t laggy by any means and a slightly more tame pedal response does help with passenger comfort.
The interior on the 4 was quite impressive and I really loved the size of the vehicle, which is quite low and compact for a vehicle which Polestar is marketing as an “SUV Coupe.” It’s smaller than I expected, and I consider that a good thing. There was still plenty of room inside and it was comfortable, but definitely not cavernous.
However, the user interface still needs some work. While the layout is nice, there were many moments of lag when tapping or scrolling through, especially when trying to move the map where it occasionally froze up. Also, the HUD doesn’t work with polarized glasses – a common problem, but one which is not inherently unfixable (just turn the screen 90º), and which has been fixed on at least one car (Mercedes EQS).
We were also hoping to hear more about Polestar’s autonomous driving ambitions, as they announced a partnership with Mobileye Chauffeur and Luminar LiDAR, but didn’t have a chance to chat with them. I got stuck talking about V2G, recyclable materials, and pedal response too long (not for the first time…). Also, there was no demo of the Mobileye/Luminar system on a car, so we’ll have to wait for next time.
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