LOS ANGELES — Swedish electric vehicle startup Polestar teased an expansion of its premium performance lineup with a swoopy roadster concept.
The Polestar O2, revealed Tuesday on the rooftop of a Beverley Hills office building, is a hardtop convertible that reflects the brand’s next-generation design aesthetic and features a new aluminum platform.
“The concept combines our ambitions for sustainability and circularity with a stunning emotional design,” Polestar design boss Maximilian Missoni told Automotive News on the sidelines of a presentation here. “This really shows where we’re heading from a design language.”
The O2 concept sits low and wide and features short front and rear overhangs, a compact 2+2 cabin design and a long wheelbase. Polestar said its sports-car design template will differentiate the performance brand from affiliate Volvo Cars.
Missoni described the O2 as a “meeting point between technology and art, between precision and sculpture.”
But Polestar’s latest concept isn’t just a fanciful indulgence for the brand’s designers. It is “not so far away from reality,” the Austrian-born designer said.
Rather than build “cool spaceship”-like concepts, Missoni said Polestar develops designs people can imagine themselves driving.
“I want this applied art feeling,” he said. “It’s an amazing piece of design, but I could drive it tomorrow.”
The O2 concept offers a peek into Polestar’s ambitious product roadmap, which includes two crossovers and a large sedan expected by late 2024. The brand’s near-term focus is on bringing those models to market, brand CEO Thomas Ingenlath said.
But the O2 “is driving energy into the team,” Ingenlath said. “It enables us to portray what the Polestar brand can be in the future.”
