It has been two years since Polestar was introduced as an independent electric car brand. During this time, the brand released two car models, one after the other: Polestar 1, a high performance hybrid GT Coupé, and the pure electric high performance Polestart 2. The impending move into mass production is posing the biggest challenge for Polestar.

On 27 August, Polestar announced that its Chengdu production base had been officially put into operation. The production base is located in the Tianfu New Area of Chengdu in Sichuan province and is only several kilometers from the city center. It was meticulously designed and built by the famous Snøhetta design firm.

Entering the gate of Polestar's Chengdu production base, the editor from TMTPOST first noticed the highly iconic brand logo. The whole theme building has a minimalist design and bears no resemblance to a traditional car manufacturer. However, according to  Polestar CEO Thomas Ingelath, the positioning of the production base is more comprehensive. It is a "factory of art" that integrates minimalist design, cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and leading environmental protection concepts.

Polestar production base panorama

Gate of Polestar's Chengdu production base

The building complex incorporates a main factory building, a customer experience center, and functional zones including offices and canteens. At the center of the building is a glass atrium covered with green plants, which visually connects the different spaces. The complex emphasizes the integration of man and nature.  

Polestar's products have attracted a lot of attention since they were released; one of the most important characteristics is their design elements. For Polestar, design is the crucial element - the backbone connecting all aspects of the brand. Now, the same idea has been applied to the company's architectural design.

The reason a brand places such emphasis on design is because design is not just a visual display. Design thinking enables businesses to better utilize science and technology to establish a closer connect between brands or products and their customers.

Priority production of Polestar 1 with annual output of 500 cars

Although the production base boasts an avant-garde design and high level of harmony with the brand, its core function is first and foremost to accomplish the challenging mission of mass production. 

Polestar 1

It is reported that Polestar 1 will become the first model to officially commence mass production when it hits the assembly line at the end of this September. As a luxury high performance electric hybrid GT Coupé, Polestar 1's price will reach as high as 1.45 million RMB with an annual output of 500 units expected once put into production.

Thus Polestar 1 is positioned to enter the market right away as a luxury vehicle since it incorporates avant-garde, minimalist, aesthetic design, leading electric driving technologies and cutting-edge carbon fiber car body manufacturing technologies, with the purpose of imbuing customers with new luxury concepts significant to our era and bringing customers the joy of high performance driving.

Besides the avant-garde minimalist design thanks to the carbon fiber car body, Polestar 1 has also created a luxurious and modern in- vehicle environment for drivers and passengers. The interior includes a 2+2-seats arrangement with special leather hemming, a B&W luxury car audio system, a gearshift built by the century-old Swedish crystal brand Orrefors specially for Polestar, a fixed panoramic sunroof and more.

Polestar 1

Following the same production logic of many leading new car manufacturers, Polestar's first model is not a product for the mass market in either price or design and will not rely on its sales volume. For Polestar's debut, its strategic significance is to establish a brand image of high product quality. Polestar 1 establishes the culture of a new brand for later models including Polestar 2 which will rely more on its sales volume. Polestar 1's tasteful design and excellent craftsmanship will be the reasons for customers to choose Polestar’s products.

Production Process Innovation

Polestar 1 has extremely high production process requirements. As a consequence, many new innovations were brought into the planning and production processes at Chengdu Production Base, laying a solid foundation for the mass production of later models.

For example, Polestar 1's body is almost entirely made of carbon fiber including the body-side, doors, front wing, front hood and rear trunk cover. The use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites (CFRP) reduces the weight of the body effectively by 230 kg, compared to traditional steel bodies, almost completely offsetting the extra weight caused by the use of the high capacity battery pack.

Manufacturing of the structure of the carbon fiber car body

Polestar 1 also uses Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites (CFRP) in the structure of the lower car body. In the jointing area between the car's middle and rear floors, Polestar 1 has adopted carbon fiber materials in order to build a component in the shape of an insect, called the "dragonfly component". Adhered to the jointing area between the middle and rear floor areas in a criss-cross pattern, the component reinforces the traditionally weak area and improves the torsional stiffness of the whole structure by 45%.

Currently, Polestar's Chengdu production base is the first car manufacturer nationally with the technology to manufacture the complete carbon fiber car body structure; it also has a carbon fiber car body molding room and a carbon fiber car body spray booth, which can be used to carry out the complete manufacturing process including the car body structure pre-processing, adhering and forming of the carbon fiber car body and the whole carbon fiber car body spray.

Carbon fiber car body spraying

Polestar adopts extremely rigorous standards in its production processes in order to fulfill its environmental promise. It has given up some traditional practices which cost the environment highly, such as the water circulation decontamination system. It also uses more environmentally friendly equipment and materials such as a dry spray booth and hay filter to filter paint mist, leading to more energy-saving in production and a more environmentally friendly car.

In terms of emissions, Polestar's Chengdu production base uses a cutting-edge and environmentally friendly water-based low temperature paint. Compared with traditional coating, it reduces VOC content by 80%. At the same time, the production base has adopted cutting-edge exhaust gas treating equipment which processes and converts VOC gas in the coating workshop to CO2 and water. Thus, Polestar's VOC emissions are much lower than European Union standards.

Connecting the body and the chassis

The Chengdu production base perfectly integrates environmental protection ideas, cutting-edge technologies and leading processes to manufacture high quality and high performance electric cars for the global market. At the same time, it helps promote the sustainable development of high-end electric car manufacturing in China by applying environmentally friendly materials and improving the efficiency of energy consumption.

Now, Chengdu Polestar Production Base has received a World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI), which has further consolidated Polestar's position as an independent car manufacturer.

Car assembly

Talking about why the production base was built in Chengdu, Mr. Wu Zhenhao, CEO of Polestar China, believes that manufacturing in China enjoys huge advantages in terms of talents and resources. "Polestar hopes to base itself in Chengdu to explore the Chinese market while promoting the further upgrade of Chinese manufacturing capabilities by cooperating with other businesses to take advantage of global resources and leading technologies," said Wu.

In terms of Polestar 2, the secondary model which relies more on its sales volume, Polestar has yet to release an exact production date. However, on Polestar's official pre-order page, the estimated delivery date of Polestar 2 is the first half of 2020. It is expected that as the production base is perfected gradually, the mass production of Polestar 2 will be put more firmly on the agenda.

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This article was edited by the TMTPOST team. 

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