Bringing an all-new vehicle to the masses takes time and a massive dedication of resources – both human capital and financial investments. Designers and engineers work hand-in-hand to create the new vehicle before the world sees the final product. But that’s not where development ends. Once the project gets the green light, the automaker prepares for production – and that’s the stage where the Polestar 1 is at now. Polestar is building verification prototype (VP) 1s in Sweden, which will be used for crash tests, weather testing, and on-road assessments.
Polestar hopes to change more than just cars:
“The assembly of the VP cars means that the Polestar 1 has taken its next step towards production,” says Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar. “This first batch of 34 cars will enable our engineers to tune the finer details of the car, ensuring that the Polestar 1 is perfect when we start to produce customer cars in the middle of next year.”
Polestar 1 production takes place at a specialized prototype production facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, with much of the build process completed by hand. This process is used to ensure vehicle parts and components are aligned and will assemble correctly. Time is spent hand sanding the carbon-fiber body for paint, making sure pieces line up, and keeping the body lines intact. This is a testing phase fo Polestar 1 production of customer cars, which will be built at the Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China. The Polestar 1 is the first time Volvo has explored carbon fiber construction.
Testing is underway:
The Polestar 1 packs both efficiency and performance under the hood. The car’s hybrid powertrain produces 600 horsepower and 737 pound-feet (1,000 Newton-meters) of torque. It also provides up to 93 miles (150 kilometers) of electric range.
The Polestar 1 is a massive undertaking for both Volvo and the Polestar brand. Volvo and its parent company Geely announced plans to invest 640 million euros (about $752M) in Polestar to help it create a line of new models while developing proprietary technology and borrowing from Volvo’s engineering expertise.
Source: Polestar
Gallery: Polestar 1 Prototype Production
FIRST POLESTAR 1 PROTOTYPE CARS START PRODUCTION
Momentum in the development of the Polestar 1 has increased with the production of the first series of road-going verification prototype (VP) cars in Sweden. Produced for a number of purposes including crash tests, weather testing and on-road assessment, the VP cars form the very first fleet of Polestar 1 cars on the road.
Construction of the cars, which takes place in a specialised prototype production facility in Gothenburg, is largely done by hand. It acts as the first testing phase for production of Polestar 1 customer cars which will be built at the new Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China. The carbon fibre-body of the Polestar 1 required the development of new specialised production equipment and construction techniques that will be transferred to the factory and used to build the production cars.
“The assembly of the VP cars means that the Polestar 1 has taken its next step towards production,” says Thomas Ingenlath, Chief Executive Officer of Polestar. “This first batch of 34 cars will enable our engineers to tune the finer details of the car, ensuring that the Polestar 1 is perfect when we start to produce customer cars in the middle of next year.”
Production of the Polestar 1 marks the first time that a brand in the Volvo Car Group has explored carbon fibre construction. The VP cars have allowed engineers to design, test and execute complicated construction processes with positive results.