Swedish electric car brand Polestar has called for greater ambition and speed from fellow manufacturers in making the switch from petrol- and diesel-powered cars to pure-electric models.
Lacking ambition
Speaking at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Polestar's CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, said that many car companies' pledges to phase-out internal combustion engined cars by 2040, just weren't good enough considering the immediacy required by the climate emergency.
According to Ingenlath:
"Car companies are still talking about selling petrol and diesel cars until 2040. Considering the lifetime of a car, they will still be driving and polluting the second half of this century. They are delaying one of the most powerful climate protection solutions available to us."
Stop building petrol engines
While other manufacturers' efforts to develop pure-electric cars was laudable, he said, Ingenlath was critical of those which have made the decision to develop new generations of internal combustion engines.
"This is not the time for incremental change, but radical change," he said. "Can you imagine describing this to a child today: 30 years from now, cars will still produce toxic gases, making the air harsher to breathe?"
More green energy needed
Polestar's parent-company, Volvo - itself owned by the Chinese conglomerate, Geely - plans to become an all-electric brand by 2030, but recently said that while electric cars can reduce carbon emissions relative to ICE-powered cars by a huge margin, that is contingent upon a massive ramping-up of investment in clean energy from governments. A recent analysis of the lifetime carbon emissions of Volvo's new electric C40 Recharge model showed that, with the average global electricity mix still 60 per cent generated by fossil fuels, much of the potential good work by electric cars in reducing emissions is undone unless significant improvements are made towards greening global energy grids.
Greener supply chains
Another aspect of Volvo's strategy for reducing the carbon cost of its cars was echoed by Ingenlath:
"Building and selling electric cars isn't the end point, it is the beginning. We will need at least as much attention on creating a clean supply chain and ultimately recycling. An electric car is a good start, and a pathway to true climate neutral mobility, but, clean means clean from start to finish."
Polestar aims to produce a "climate neutral car" by 2030, without, it says, relying on carbon offsetting.
"Polestar is not perfect," Ingenlath said, "but we are working at being better".