THE GOOD OIL
Give Polestar its due; at least it has a realistic world view of the landscape it’s entering into. The Volvo offshoot is setting up shop in China next year — in a semirural valley in Chengdu — with plans to build its first stand- alone production model.
We’ve seen the architect’s renderings of the proposed factory . . . and the images even include smog. Now that’s a lifelike representation.
The all- electric side project has big plans to revolutionise the sporty EV with a Scandi- Chinese take on Tesla. This sounds like a cool idea. Or at least a clean idea. Perhaps that’s why the company hasn’t shied away from including a murky skyline: the cars are part of the solution, not the problem.
The Polestar Production Centre is in China in the first place because that country is forecast to take a dramatic turn in EV uptake over the next four or five years. It is expected there will be around a million EVs produced in China by 2020. Not all of them will stay there, of course, but alt- energy cars will have plenty of good PR. The Government will make it so.
We’re looking forward to photos from the, say, fifth- year celebrations of Polestar’s foundation in the country, showing its streamlined factory bathed in bright, clear sunshine.