Polestar has given itself a short deadline to make the first climate-neutral car, so the company has started looking for partners to make its wide-eyed dreams come true. Polestar has been planning its climate-neutral car, the Polestar 0 Project, since 2021. The company contrasts this to a carbon-neutral car by the impact throughout its whole life cycle. The idea being that a climate-neutral car will have zero carbon emissions not just when in use, but also when made.
Polestar claims it can do this by 2030, and the purpose of its open invitation is to get as many production partners as possible, ones that are as ambitious as Polestar. The following is the list of takers so far, along with their proposed contributions to the Polestar 0 Project:
- SSAB AB: Fossil-Free Steel
- Norsk Hydro ASA: Zero-Carbon Aluminum
- ZF Friedrichshafen AG: Optimized Electric Powertrains
- Autoliv Inc.: Zero-Emissions Airbags and Seatbelts
- ZKW Group: Climate-Neutral Electrical Control Systems and Wiring
Polestar’s current list of partners is nothing to scoff at. It’s missing a tire supplier, but these are some big auto part makers. Polestar also says that it’s looking for groups to collaborate with outside of the production chain.
The only problem I have — which I will cling to, otherwise I can’t help from heaping praise on Polestar — is that the project seems limited. The Polestar 0 is a halo car for the environmental crowd, which will be something Polestar can point to but be unable to replicate with all of its cars. And I doubt that SSAB, Hydro, ZF, Autoliv and ZKW will drop the lucrative but dirty production of their other lines.
Still, Polestar claims the lessons it learns will be put to use beyond the project, maybe with later cars and even beyond the production of cars, period. Polestar could just be fighting windmills here, but the company knows this.
Even Polestar calls the 0 Project a moon-shot, bringing a little self-awareness to its plans that can seem... ambitious. But, dammit, someone has to try, and of course it’s going to be Volvo’s do-gooder offspring.
If Polestar can pull it off and actually make a climate-neutral car by 2030, it will have taken the company about 13 years to do something that hasn’t been done. Something that has eluded Ford, once a parent company of Volvo, for more than 113 years. Sure, a climate-neutral car was not a priority for anyone when the Ford Model T rolled up, but what if it had been?
