Polestar announced today that has joined Sweden-based innovation hub MobilityXlab as its newest partner, becoming the first company to do so since MobilityXlab was founded in 2017. MobilityXlab, based at Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg, Sweden, facilitates collaboration between tech start-ups with pioneering ideas within mobility and connectivity, and leading Swedish companies also focused on driving change in the future of mobility.
As a MobilityXlab partner, Polestar will join a platform that supports innovative ideas from the global start-up community and play a leading role in accelerating advancements in the field of future mobility. The partnership will allow Polestar to screen tech start-ups and their solutions, work closely with shortlisted companies to incubate ideas, and turn proofs-of-concept into reality.
Polestar is particularly keen to explore how cutting-edge technology could be applied in the transition towards sustainable electric mobility, creating best-in-class digital customer journeys, and enhancing the overall in-car experience for Polestar owners.
The partnership supports Polestar’s rapid growth strategy and allows us to leverage the wider tech industry to accelerate innovation. We are constantly looking for innovators that can help us bring value to our business, improve society, and ultimately benefit our customers. MobilityXlab is a perfect platform for this as well as opening opportunities to collaborate with partner companies.
Nils Mösko, Polestar’s Global Head of Strategy and Business Development
MobilityXlab’s Director, Katarina Brud, heralds the addition of Polestar as a partner as a valuable addition to the innovation hub: “Polestar’s combination of deep automotive expertise, cutting-edge technologies and agile, entrepreneurial culture and focus on sustainability, makes the team an excellent match for MobilityXlab. Polestar’s market position will help attract the best and the brightest to our programme and, at the same time, bolsters the other founding partners.”
Prior to Polestar’s inception as a partner, MobilityXlab partners included CEVT, Ericsson, Veoneer, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group and Zenseact.
Last week, the company announced the opening of its third UK Space at Touchwood, the award winning, 650,000 square foot shopping destination in Solihull’s town centre. The company has already other two spaces located at London Westfield and Manchester’s Trafford Centre.
The Space will feature the same state of the art minimalist design, seamless digital interactivity and non-commissioned product specialists as found in its other Spaces around the world. Customers can define their entire journey from initial enquiry through, if they wish, to the delivery of their chosen Polestar model. Test drives can be conducted on-site, deliveries can be scheduled to home or office addresses and there is no stock held to try and persuade buyers away from their desired configuration.
The Swedish EV maker revealed also last week a new concept car, the hard-top convertible named Polestar O2 that has autonomous cinematic drone integrated. By 2023, the company plans to be available in an aggregate of 30 markets. The models are currently manufactured in two facilities in China, with additional future manufacturing planned in the USA.
Polestar sold 384 units of its Polestar 2 being the third best selling model in Norway during February. In 2021, Polestar’s luxury sedan was the 10th most popular car model in the Scandinavian country, the one with the highest EV adoption.
During February, the company had its first-ever Super Bowl commercial which, according to EDO, was 23x more effective than the median Super Bowl LVl ad airing. The commercial was initially leaked by our site some hours before the event and reached 55,000 views during the first 4 days.
Polestar intends to list on the Nasdaq in a proposed business combination with Gores Guggenheim, Inc., which is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com