Polestar is constantly taking small steps away from Volvo. Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 are in reality the same car with different shapes. In a few years, Polestar’s cars will to a much greater extent have their own identity – both in technology and design.
Polestar’s concept car Precept is an example of this. It will most likely be the fifth model in the series, and it is most likely that it will be called the Polestar 5 when it arrives in 2024.
The Precept was first unveiled as a concept car in 2020, and in September last year it became clear that the car manufacturer had decided to develop it further into a production model.
Performance and battery size are so far unknown. We also do not know how close the Precept design is to the Polestar 5, but it will not be exactly the same.
Polestar brought the car to Lillestrøm this week, where Polestar chief Thomas Ingenlath presented the concept car to the participants at the Nordic EV Summit electric car fair.
Here he said, among other things, that the car’s front spoiler will not come on the fiver, and that the production version will have B-pillars, which the concept car lacks.
Low sports car
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Precept is a car in the sports car segment, and not a traditional sedan. The car is low and you are sitting low. Ingenlath describes it as sitting in a Porsche 911.
This is a challenge, because there is no electric car platform at Volvo or at the parent company Geely that makes it possible to place the battery in such a way that you can actually sit low.
Thus, Polestar itself has invested in architecture that makes this possible. That way, the car will be special for Polestar. But it is of course not inconceivable that the platform will be used by others in the Geely group.
Volvo has no sports cars in its portfolio, and with the company’s safety focus, such a product does not fit either. Polestar has its roots in Volvo, and the newcomer is still working on developing its brand.
Polestar’s first car, the Polestar 1 hybrid, was in practice a Volvo concept, and Ingenlath says he feared that people would not fully understand where Polestar would end up with its models coming in the next few years.
The new Polestar front
Precept shows how far Polestar has moved away from the roots of Volvo, Ingenlath believes. The car has a completely new front, which will define Polestar’s design expression going forward. The next Polestar model, the SUV Polestar 3, will have the same design in front as the Precept.
The roots are not completely erased. The design from Volvo’s “Thor’s hammer” headlights lives on at Polestar.
The front of the Precept has what Ingenlath calls the “smart zone”, where all the sensors for the driver support systems are built in. All these sensors are built into the same sealed unit. In the front, the Precept has a spoiler over the top of the front, which ensures better aerodynamics. This will come on Polestar 3, but for the production version of Precept it is not necessary, and it will therefore not come on the final design.
Otherwise, Polestar has chosen a long front on the car. Although in reality it is not necessary on an electric car, it gives a premium look, and space for storage under the hood. It also ensures that the car has a large deformation zone in the front, which is important for safety.
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Believe in suffering
At the top of the roof, right by the windshield, the manufacturer has placed a lidar. Not only with regard to future self-driving, but also because it provides better safety functionality, according to Ingenlath.
– It is this great disagreement. Tesla thinks that they should go to autonomy without using lidar, which is quite an expensive technology, but we are convinced that it adds so much information and visibility that we definitely do not want to miss the opportunities and benefits you get with this modern lidaren.
The lid on Precept was developed by American Luminar, and according to Ingenlath should be able to see 300 meters ahead. He believes Polestar has this system ready for market introduction sometime in 2023, and that it will come on Polestar 3.
This will make it possible for real self-driving on the motorway, and the Polestar boss envisions a scenario where you can sit and read a book while the car drives itself.
No rear window gives greater freedom
Ingenlath also pulled out the back of the car. The car has no rear window. Instead, they have chosen to go for the camera. This is not just because it looks fancy, but because it gives them more freedom to give the car both the desired shape and functionality.
When installing a rear window, the chassis must be reinforced with posts, providing a difficult area to work with. Ingenlath says that you then have to choose between a headroom in the back seat or a functional luggage compartment. By dropping the entire rear window, they can have both.
So by taking out the window and replacing the mirror with a camera, they get what he calls a good package that works both aesthetically and functionally.
Ingenlath is also concerned with the use of sustainable materials in the car’s interior. Both vegetable products and recycled plastic have been used here. Polestar has invested a lot of research and development in this, Ingenlath explains.
The interior design is centered around the screens in the car. This is also the trend in interior design in the automotive industry, Ingenlath explains. Working with material use is in itself important, but when the screen is turned on, it is where you have focus, and “where your brand takes place”, as he says. What the dashboard looks like then becomes almost irrelevant.
Therefore, they have spent a lot of time developing the Android system in Polestar, and they continue to do so in their upcoming cars.
As different from Volvo as Mercedes is Audi
It is known that Polestar 3 will be built on the same platform as the upcoming electric Volvo XC90. Ingenlath promises that their next car is not a Volvo with a new logo. It will be very different.
– I am not worried about thinking that there are two Swedish car brands that can build two SUVs in the size that is differently designed and that is aimed at two completely different groups of consumers, he says.
From the image shown so far – where the Polestar 3 is under a cover – it appears to have an SUV coupe-like profile.
– Volvo and Polestar will be as different as Audi and Mercedes are. Some trends in the automotive industry, such as aerodynamic shapes, are becoming mainstream. Electric car technology requires aerodynamic design. It’s a styling trend going on, for good reason. But within that you have different characteristics and family members. I have been designing Volvo for a long time and know very well what you can and should do in a Volvo environment, and what you should not do and what Volvo will oppose. And it’s clear that a car with sporty attributes and demeanor is something you can not do in a Volvo environment.
