Polestar Aims to Have World’s First Climate Neutral Car by 2030

Polestar, the new Swedish car company focused on electric vehicles, has just made a pretty big announcement: it aims to create the world’s first truly climate neutral car by 2030. The project is called "Polestar 0."

In order to get there, however, it will take a lot more than planting trees to offset GHG emissions because there are questions about the long-term carbon-storage capacity of forests and soils.

• Also: First Polestar 2 Deliveries in Canada Have Begun
• Also: Polestar Precept Gets the Greenlight for Production

“Offsetting is a cop-out,” warned Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. “By pushing ourselves to create a completely climate-neutral car, we are forced to reach beyond what is possible today. We will have to question everything, innovate and look to exponential technologies as we design towards zero.”

Then he added: “Today Polestar 2 leaves the factory gates with a carbon footprint. In 2030 we want to present a car that does not.”

How realistic is Polestar’s ambitious goal? It’s hard to say, especially since the company gave no further details about the actions it plans to take to achieve complete carbon neutrality.

We know that electric vehicles are complex to produce and that there are significant environmental impacts to sourcing minerals for batteries. All the stakeholders in the supply, production and retail chain will need to contribute.

Obviously, climate action is already being incorporated throughout Polestar’s business, and climate targets are even integrated in the employee bonus system. The company also wants to be transparent: all future models starting with Polestar 2 will initially disclose carbon footprint and traced risk materials. This information will appear on its website and in Polestar Spaces.