By David M. Brown
Sleek and beautiful at rest. Fun, fast and aerodynamic in motion. The Polestar 6 will be built on the company’s bonded-aluminum platform, ensuring structural rigidity. Your trips will be five stars all the way.
Inspired by Polestar’s racing heritage, the car will feature 800-volt electric architecture and a high-output dual-motor powertrain generating 884 horsepower: it will sprint from 0-to-60 mph in about three seconds. For your future travels, that ensures quick passing times, assured highway entrances, and accident avoidance. Similar to the range of the company’s current model, the Polestar 2, the Polestar 6 will maintain a charge for 300-plus miles.
While this convertible will not be available for three years, Polestar began selling 500 units of its Polestar 6 LA Concept Edition in August 2022; that limited-production car will closely resemble the production model. The cars, which quickly sold out, were invoiced at $200,000 — about the same as what the production Polestar 6 will be stickered at in 2026, says John Quinn, head of Polestar Product & Launch North America.
The Polestar 1 was a plug-in hybrid. Now in its fourth year, the 476-horsepower Polestar 2 has been cleared by the IRS for the $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit, if it is leased ($48,400 MSRP). In 2024, the Polestar 3 SUV will be offered; in 2025 the Polestar 4, a larger SUV; and in 2025, the sedan Polestar 5, similar to the P6 roadster.
In Arizona, the cars are sold through the Polestar space in Scottsdale Fashion Square near Nordstrom. Courtesy Automotive Group — led by principals Scott Gruwell and Jason Church — owns the store, which opened a year ago. Beginning in Phoenix as Courtesy Chevrolet in 1955, the family-owned company has expanded to seven dealerships in Arizona and California.
“With all of the concern about global warming, Polestar came to us a while back and told us they had an opening in Scottsdale for a Polestar space, and we welcomed the opportunity,” recalls Jason Church, chief operating officer for Courtesy.
“Typically, these vehicles make the rounds at the main auto shows in New York, Los Angeles, London, so normally you only get to see the beauty and style of these cars on PC screens or cell phones,” he adds. “With the insights on how we are making this a beautiful car, and a racing heritage with an innovative bonded aluminum frame, we cannot wait to experience the car in three years.”
Sustainability, Quinn explains, is one of Polestar’s three tenants, along with car architecture and design, so the company carefully tracks materials through its supply chain such as the cobalt and mica for the batteries.
“Blockchain technology allows us to trace risk minerals from material source to finished product to ensure ethical mining and manufacturing processes are employed,” he says.
The bonded aluminum unibody technology eliminates mixed metal structures and the 3,500–4,000 rivets normally used in traditional manufacturing, making the car lighter, more rigid, and recyclable. These factors increase range and responsiveness while maintaining the highest safety standards.
“Additionally, this innovation allows for a high degree of design flexibility, as adjustments for factors like different wheelbases can be achieved with comparative ease,” Quinn explains.
In 2022, Polestar had reduced relative CO2 e-emissions per car sold by 8% compared to 2021 levels. Relative emissions on a per-unit-basis have been reduced by 13% since 2020.
He adds, “This is the second consecutive year the company has combined rapid growth with carbon cuts.”
Desirability of Design
Design is one of the top three reasons people choose a car, Quinn explains. Much of the time, he’s driving a Polestar 2 from his Bucks County, Pa., home to the company headquarters in Mahwah, N.J., across the river from New York City.
He loves the car, as well as the diverse reactions from other drivers. Car enthusiasts and children are taken by the styling: “What kind of car is that?” A girl rolls down her window and offers an emphatic thumbs up, and a car-savvy man repeats that approval from his BMW M3.
Company CEO Thomas Ingenlath is a former designer, and he ensures design is a core element of the brand. And the director of design, Max Missoni, oversaw the P2 concept from vision to execution and now is working on transforming those efforts into a P6 production vehicle.
“The Polestar Concept 6 is immediately identifiable as Scandinavian design, pure, elegant, confident. It’s also symmetrical, logical, iconic,” Quinn says. “It has EV era design features such as a long wheelbase and short overhangs, thoughtfully integrated aero features, and beautiful crisp and decisive lines.”
While much of the Polestar 6 interior will be in design for the next two years, it is expected to include an infotainment system that adapts to the driver’s movements, woven flax composite panels, and other sustainable material innovations.
Efforts will be made to create all layers of certain components from the same base material. This will allow them to be recycled more efficiently by eliminating the need to separate incompatible materials — like foam, adhesive, the 3D knit upholstery, and the nonwoven lamination — before recycling.
He adds, “We are always telling people, especially those particularly concerned about living green, that you don’t have to sacrifice anything –– design, performance, or roadability –– to be sustainable.”
For more information or to place an order for the Polestar 2, 3, and 6, visit www.polestar.com. For more green design articles, check out our Design page!
