Eclipsing tradition: Polestar’s design evolution

As a car company founded with a design-first ethos, Polestar’s fresh take on form meets function is uncovering new ground in materials and luxury aesthetics.

Hidden atop a rocky cliff within a tall, green forest and to the west of Gothenburg, Sweden, sits perhaps one of the most interesting design studios in the automotive industry. The three-storey building, designed by Romaldo Giurgola and Owe V Svärd, is nestled down into the rock face and, with its late-’70s Scandinavian minimalism meets neoclassic aesthetic, appears like the lair of a villain who has a thing for luxury spas. The ‘eagle’s nest’ was once the pride of former Volvo CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, who, during the 1980s, wanted a grand office where he could powerfully gaze over the Volvo plant and to the Gothenburg archipelago in the distance. Today, it is the design home of Polestar, a fitting fortress for the one-time, high-performance offshoot of Volvo that is now a fully fledged electric car company causing mass disruption within the electric vehicle (EV) sector, with an armoury led by design.

Polestar has a goal to create a ‘truly climate-neutral car’ by 2030, through eliminating end-of-life emissions and rethinking both supply chain and manufacturing.

If there’s one thing to know about Polestar and the importance of said lair, it’s that as a marque, it has been led the whole way by two designers, CEO Thomas Ingenlath, the former head of design at Volvo, and head of design Maximilian Missoni, also a former Volvo chief designer. This story comes with a caveat though, as at the time of print, Missoni announced his departure from Polestar and Ingenlath is moving to a different role. However, without this duo, the marque would not be the quiet powerhouse it is today, and with two of Missoni’s new vehicles about to enter the Australian market – the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 – consider this a peek into the groundwork of ideas underwriting this electrified performance car brand.

Part of the marque’s vision, and indeed ambition, has been rooted in sustainability and transparency. Polestar has a goal to create a ‘truly climate-neutral car’ by 2030, through eliminating end-of-life emissions and rethinking both supply chain and manufacturing. Every year since this announcement in 2021, the Chinese-owned Swedish brand has released transparent climate and supply chain reports – an unheard-of practice within the automotive industry. Naturally, a large chunk of the battle comes down to rethinking how future cars will be made and from what. Or, to paraphrase Missoni during our studio tour, addressing the irresponsibility associated with repeating old paradigms or copying what others do. And, importantly, rethinking desire. “In a world where there’s so much overproduction, you can create desire for the wrong choices,” he says. “We hope to contribute to the other side of the coin.”

“In a world where there’s so much overproduction, you can create desire for the wrong choices,” he says. “We hope to contribute to the other side of the coin.”

While others chase superfluous styling and corner cutting, Polestar’s design ethos is, in a word, pure. Very Swedish, very minimalist, very graphic and, if done wrong, very dry. That’s where innovation is stepping up, particularly within the Polestar 3 and 4. On the inside, specially designed UX aesthetics (now the biggest cohort within the design team) are being used to create a sense of harmony through all digital touchpoints, and tactile moments are offered via fresh material innovations, such as the new 100 per cent PET waste-derived, 3D flat-knitted seat textile – a very clean interpretation of sneaker fabrics. Wood details come from deconstructed, reused birch, and the vegan leather alternative is made using recycled polyester textiles and a fossil fuel oil replacement called bionaphtha, a byproduct of wood pulp. Looking to the future, the Polestar Precept, a sci-fi concept car now set to become the Polestar 5 in 2025 – and which will appear very close to its originator – features one of the most fascinating material innovations: ampliTex, a hard woven flax and bio-based material that replaces traditional plastics and cuts weight by half. The beauty of it is that the weave can be seen through the hard surface, creating a unique, organic finish – almost like resin-coated cardboard – that juxtaposes with the otherwise minimalist, contrasting interior.

Elsewhere, recycled aluminium and steel have been sourced from post-industrial and post-consumer waste, and the technology is in plain sight, highlighted through the use of typography and graphic design elements. A fantastic example of this is the Polestar grille replacement, or SmartZone, which houses a cluster of sensor systems. You’ll find the zone marked on the car in the signature Polestar Unica77 typeface; this text detail appears in other places too, including on the new, tailored 3D-knitted fabric seats. Like a plaque under a painting, the aim was to elevate the car’s technology into an art piece, says Missoni. As he explains it, where post-war cars once used chrome as a luxury tool to hide unsightly welding and create prestige, Polestar is attempting to do the same through tech-coded graphic placement. “We are quite proud of the nerdy approach we take to our graphic design,” he says. “In our cars, you get a satisfaction from understanding design, not just emotionally, but the themes and correlations, contrasts and the structure.”

“In our cars, you get a satisfaction from understanding design, not just emotionally, but the themes and correlations, contrasts and the structure.”

This is why Polestars are fast becoming the EVs of the thinking aesthete. “It all starts with this extremely stringent and logical framework,” says Missoni. “It’s one thing to sketch, it’s another to make it in 3D, but it’s very hard to do that in a car production process because there are many factors that push and pull: economics, producibility and everything tries to destroy your initial concept.” But in this small marque, and some would argue, elsewhere in the automotive world – particularly in South Korea – the pressure to stand out from the rising tide of EVs is leading to a process that pushes against the old way of doing things, not to mention, a new consumer expectation to bring futuristic concepts into production, especially when it comes to climate-related material solutions. “It can be such an anticlimax when you do the amazing cars and there’s nothing left,” says Missoni. “There’s a certain value in promising something and people actually getting the dream in reality. Plus, it satisfies us as designers, too.”

Parallel to this is the rise of fashionable gimmicks, which aren’t part of Polestar’s plan for longevity – and likely that of wherever Missoni lands next. “It’s about doing things that last in their quality,” he says. “It’s a fine line because you need to stand out, and you can’t be too conservative. But I think it’s about having a good reason for innovation, for design, for creating those stories we tell – why should random chrome still be considered luxury? Why can’t technology be luxury? I think that’s a story that will last.”