The upcoming Polestar 5 electric saloon is set to feature a bonded aluminium platform which, according to the Sino-Swedish car maker, promises outstanding levels of lightness and torsional rigidity.
Light and strong
The platform has been developed by the company's UK-based R&D team, largely composed of ex-motorsport engineers, which has cracked the complex challenge, the company says, of successfully using bonded aluminium in a mass-production car. Bonded aluminium, despite its advantages, has, in the past, proven labour intensive to work with and a difficult construction method with which to ensure high standards. The Polestar team's new manufacturing process sees both body and platform being developed in unison resulting in a faster build as well as more consistent quality.
As a result of the new construction methods, the body-in-white will weigh less than cars a segment below making it more efficient and lengthening the Polestar 5's range. The lightness and the torsional rigidity - "superior to that of a two-seat sports- or supercar" - will also contribute to a dynamically-improved driving experience.
Commenting on the architecture underpinning the Polestar 5, Pete Allen, the head of Polestar UK's R&D team said:
"We knew we wanted this car to be light-weight, we knew we wanted high quality and we knew we wanted it quickly. This architecture delivers outstanding dynamic and safety attributes, with low investment technology applicable to high production volumes."
The Polestar 5's bonded aluminium architecture will be the first platform solely developed by Polestar, the company, until now, having based its vehicles on platforms from parent company, Volvo. The overall four-door GT design of the car is based on that of the well-received Precept concept, first unveiled in 2020 and since refined into a pre-production prototype, currently being used by Polestar to attract investors ahead of its planned stock market listing in the United States.
Polestar's future plans
Although the Polestar 5 isn't set to launch until 2024, Polestar has other big plans in the pipeline over the next few years. The Polestar 3 SUV will launch later in 2022, sharing some running gear with its Volvo XC90 cousin as well as being built in the same factory in the US; a smaller counterpart named, predictably, the Polestar 4 is scheduled for launch in 2023, with the Polestar 5 following the year after.