Will the 2022 Polestar 2 be the greenest car in Australia when it arrives this year? Swedish brand bets on sustainability to attract curious EV buyers

Would you pay more for an electric car that aims to eliminate rather than offset your carbon footprint?

Volvo's premium electric sub-brand, Polestar, will hit Australian shores before the end of this year, but the brand says its hallmark lies not just in electrification and performance, but in sustainably producing cars and monitoring their environmental impact from the cradle. to the grave."

What exactly does this mean? Speaking to media at an event in Sydney, Polestar Australia's newly appointed Managing Director Samantha Johnson explained that the brand is considering the "lifecycle environmental impact of the Polestar 2" and that "when the Polestar 2 is charged with renewable energy, there is 50% less emissions than a traditional car."

The brand is working to create "the world's first carbon-neutral car by 2030" and plans to do so not by offsetting carbon emissions, as other brands often do, but by "virtually removing" carbon from the car's life cycle.

But will consumers be willing to pay more for it?

To attract buyers, the brand is open about the fact that battery electric vehicles (BEVs) such as the Polestar 2 actually require a huge amount of carbon emissions (mainly due to the difficulty of assembling lithium-ion batteries) and require a significant amount of travel time. (112,000 to 50,000 km to be exact) to start offering tangible environmental benefits in line with the global average power mix. The distance traveled can be shortened if the car is charged in Europe (where there are more renewables in the grid) or charged solely by wind power, which can bring it down to XNUMX km.

Polestar's strategy is to be more open about its emissions.

While Polestar cars are also said to be built from many recycled materials and things like sustainably sourced flax (which is said to not compete with food crops), Polestar takes it a step further than its rival BMW publicly offering a company life cycle assessment report. The carbon footprint of the Polestar 2.

The estimate includes a breakdown of the materials used to build the entire vehicle and indicates where recycled materials can be used. For example, the brand estimates it should move towards greater use of recycled metals, especially aluminium, which currently accounts for 29 percent of the Polestar 2's carbon footprint during production.

It will also aim to recycle more steel and copper in future production, but also relies on blockchain technology to track cobalt in the automotive ecosystem.

Cobalt is one of the most controversial materials used in electric vehicles and is currently required to make lithium-ion batteries. Not only is it a rare earth metal, but its source is often not sustainable or ethical: 70% of the world's supply comes from Congolese mines, much of which is reportedly dependent on exploitative labor practices.

In the future, Polestar hopes to use such technologies not only to ensure that its vehicles avoid dilemmas with suppliers, but also to enable them to recover and reuse materials from batteries and end-of-life vehicles.

Blockchain technology will allow Polestar to track and extract valuable materials from its vehicles.

Polestar, owned by Volvo and its parent company Geely of China, is purchasing lithium batteries for the Polestar 2 from Korean giant LG Chem and Chinese battery supplier CATL. battery suppliers and is said to be built in a sustainable and clean energy facility.

Will Australian consumers care about the Polestar 2 being more environmentally friendly and transparent than its premium electric competitors? Time will show. The brand will debut with the Polestar 2 Down Under this November, though with prices starting above $75k it will face stiff competition from the ever-popular Tesla and new EV rivals such as Hyundai's Ioniq line, EV6 from Kia or VW ID.4, each vying to be the more affordable electric offering.