While electric vehicles may not emit carbon while driving, the production of their individual parts – nuts, bolts, airbags, and so on – still involve carbon emitting processes. Polestar is collaborating with various contributors along its supply chain to tackle this.
Suppliers from across the automotive manufacturing world, SSAB, Hydro, ZF, ZKW and Autoliv, have agreed letters of intent with Swedish car company Polestar to join its quest to develop a carbon neutral car piece by piece.
Polestar has announced this project is an “open call” to anyone else interested in its mission – from suppliers to researchers to investors to entrepreneurs – to look at joining forces.
Hans Pehrson, leader of the Polestar 0 Project and former Head of R&D at Polestar, said: “The solutions we develop will not only benefit the automotive industry overall but help decarbonise manufacturing and society more widely as well. Wherever we look in the world we see materials like steel, aluminium, electronics and rubber.”
Nordic and US-based steel company SSAB will collaborate with Polestar on fossil-free steel, looking to replace steel used in a car but also other materials with significant carbon footprints.
Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Hydro and Polestar will work on zero-carbon aluminium.
With global automotive technology supplier ZF, Polestar will look to tap into its expertise in vehicle motion control, integrated safety, automated driving, and electric mobility to establish how these things could be used to help decarbonise the technology.
Autoliv, an automotive safety supplier, will be responsible for decarbonising vehicles’ safety equipment. This includes airbags and seatbelts.
Decarbonising electrics such as electrical control and wiring will be handled by automotive lighting manufacturer ZKW.
Polestar CEO, Thomas Ingenlath said: “It was clear from the start that this is not a solo-mission, and we are very excited to present such a strong line-up of interested partners, all leaders within their fields. We are leveraging innovation and collaboration to address the climate crisis.”