Polestar is based in Sweden and closely related to Volvo. But it has a far more performance-focused view of how its electric vehicles should be conceived—and it’s highlighting that distinction with its Polestar 5, a four-door “GT” fastback likely to arrive in 2024.
On Tuesday, Polestar detailed how it’s utilizing a large UK-based R&D team to develop and engineer a special bonded aluminum platform, as well as the manufacturing process around it, for the upcoming Polestar 5.
Polestar bonded aluminum platform debuting in 2024 in Polestar 5
The bonded aluminum platform is claimed to be lightweight and rigid, bringing both performance and environmental advantages. It will also offer a motorsports-influenced manufacturing process that develops both body and platform together—potentially boosting vehicle quality while allowing the team to bring it to market in less time.
Polestar says that torsional rigidity for the big ‘5’, which as a concept rides on a long 122.4-inch wheelbase and is about the size of a Tesla Model S, to be superior to that of two-seaters or supercars. The body-in-white behind the sheetmetal is expected to weigh less than those of much smaller models.
Polestar Precept concept
The Polestar 5 is expected to very closely follow the design of the Precept concept car that was first revealed in February 2020. As Polestar has confirmed, the result is due for the same arena as the Porsche Taycan, Tesla Model S Plaid, and Lucid Air—to be made in a new facility in China that will be carbon neutral and “one of the most intelligent and connected automotive production facilities in the world.”
The company isn’t limiting its exclusive pieces to the body hardware; it’s also developing its own electric motors, batteries, and electrical architecture.
L to R: Polestar 5, Polestar 4 and Polestar 3
After the Polestar 2 that’s on sale now in single- and dual-motor forms, the Polestar 3 will arrive later this year and be built in South Carolina, based on the same platform as the fully electric version of the Volvo XC90 but aimed versus the Porsche Cayenne. Before the Polestar 5, a Polestar 4 “SUV coupe” will tackle the Porsche Macan. The target for the brand, globally, is nearly 300,000 annual sales by 2025.
There’s likely no coincidence that this announcement, and a big-budget Polestar Super Bowl ad, happened this past week. Polestar, which is financially backed by Volvo Cars and its own global parent, China’s Geely, is currently engaged in a SPAC with Gores Guggenheim. Expected to take place in the next several months, the mammoth $20 billion merger could allow the brand an even greater degree of independence.
