Polestar has announced that despite growing its business it's still on track to meet its target of producing a carbon-neutral car by 2030.
In its latest annual review and sustainability report, the Sino-Swedish electric carmaker said that it had reduced its emissions in the last year by some six per cent per car through an increased focus on efficiency and the use of renewable energy in its production processes.
Polestar says that it aims to halve the company's carbon emissions relative to the number of cars produced by 2030, achieving total carbon neutrality across its supply chain by 2040.
Importance of setting goals
"We work with each step we take to support our climate strategy," said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar's CEO.
"Goals set ten or twenty years ahead in time might feel fluffy. That's where proper reporting comes in - making us accountable for the steps taken every year towards that goal. This is the climate decade. Change and improvement must happen all the time, now, and we can't afford to wait. I'm proud to say we reduced greenhouse gas-emissions per car sold by six per cent."
Ingenlath's comments were echoed by Polestar's head of sustainability, Fredrika Klarén.
"What gets measured gets done," she said. "Sustainability reporting is key to the transparency we abide by at Polestar. Through annual reports, we monitor our direction towards our ambitious goals and show that we do what we say."
Blockchain
As well as meeting its climate goals, the company also aims to increase the sustainability and traceability of the materials used in its cars, particularly those such as mica and cobalt, which can often have environmentally and ethically dubious origins. To this end, Polestar has announced that it is to expand its existing partnership with the blockchain provider, Circulor, to monitor the source of the mica used in its cars.
Mica has a wide variety of automotive applications including in the production of paint, coatings, plastics and electrical components. Polestar already partners with Circulor to ensure the traceability of the cobalt used in its electric powertrains using blockchain technology.
A blockchain is a kind of a digital ledger containing a list of records linked to each other via cryptography. A 'digital twin' for the raw material being traced is created and the material is then tracked through the supply chain, creating a digital thread that follows and records the various industrial processes it undergoes.
What this means is that the source and the methods by which the raw materials are extracted, processed and transported can be better regulated, helping to ensure that the metals and other elements used in battery production come from the expected mines or recycling facilities.
The Polestar brand launched in Ireland earlier this year with its pure-electric Polestar 2 model. Although there's currently only one car in the firm's line-up, it plans to launch several new models in the coming years including a new SUV, the Polestar 3, later on in 2022. It doesn't have dealerships per se, but rather "retail spaces" where potential buyers can view cars and meet company representatives, the rest of the buying process taking place online. It plans to open its first retail space in Ireland in 2022, with servicing and repairs to be conducted through the Volvo dealer network.