Fredrika Klarén, Head of Sustainability at Polestar, offers insights into how cutting-edge sustainability initiatives are driving transformation within the automotive industry. Delve into her perspective on shaping a climate-neutral electric vehicle future on the path to net zero.
Polestar's purpose is to improve the society we live in by accelerating the shift to sustainable mobility. We aim to use our unique position as a premium performance brand to push our industry forward, using design and innovation.
Going electric is only the start. Emissions in the supply chain remain. Therefore, we have set ambitious targets to reduce emissions throughout our value chain and developed roadmaps for reaching them.
Motivated by our Polestar 0 project—our moonshot goal to create a truly climate-neutral car by 2030—we conduct research, together with our partners, on new climate-neutral solutions, processes, and innovative materials. Our aim is to eliminate all emissions from raw material extraction, material manufacture, product manufacture, and end of life.
At the same time, we work on continuous improvements of our existing car models as well as future models. Instead of the cosmetic facelifts so common in the industry, we aim to upgrade our models with concrete performance, efficiency, and sustainability improvements to reduce emissions. Our objective is to create greater range, greater transparency, circularity, and more.
Since 2020, we have made several upgrades to the Polestar 2, resulting in a total reduction of its carbon footprint by 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). On top of that, with the new model year, Polestar 2 can now travel up to 22 percent further, consume up to 9 percent less energy, and charge up to 34 percent faster. These improvements are important for our customers. The strive to constantly improve performance through each model year is an important strategy for Polestar. Combined with the relentless pursuit of innovative solutions to reduce CO2e, this stands as one of Polestar's differentiating factors.
The automotive industry is rapidly evolving. What emerging trends or technologies is Polestar excited about, and how do these align with the broader energy transition?
We see a focus on three areas:
Improvements in propulsion and batteries. Increased range and faster-charging technology are ongoing customer developments that will help accelerate the shift towards electric mobility. We also see a growing trend towards improving battery sustainability, reducing carbon emissions, minimising raw material consumption, and material traceability throughout the supply chain to promote responsible sourcing.
Vehicle-to-grid solutions. Vehicle-to-grid will enable EV drivers to support the energy transition by using their EV batteries as a flexible energy resource. This will be crucial for grid balancing and reducing reliance on non-renewable energy sources as we electrify society. Additionally, it will provide an opportunity for EV owners to monetise their vehicles while parked.
Innovative materials. We see a surge in new innovative and more sustainable materials reshaping our approach. We're very excited to redefine what premium looks like by introducing new, more sustainable materials in our cars. This includes increasing the use of recycled materials, designing our products for recyclability, reducing our carbon footprint, and increasing the product's lifespan.
We need to see collective action within the industry.
Polestar and Rivian have collaborated on a Pathway Report which concludes that the automotive industry is set to overshoot the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 1.5ºC pathway by at least 75 percent by 2050. The report uses existing open-source data to model the current trajectory for emissions stemming from the car industry. This was carried out by global management consulting firm Kearney.
The data presents a pathway based on three key levers. Pulling just one or two levers in isolation will be insufficient and will only reduce the overshoot. It is imperative that car makers take collective action on all three levers in tandem, on a global level, to:
Replace fossil fuel-powered cars with electric cars.
Increase renewable energy in power grids.
Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the manufacturing supply chain.
The Pathway Report clearly illustrates the consequence of inaction and builds a compelling case for sustainable development. The investment community is responding. It is shifting capital flows from traditional to sustainable investments, and recognising the increasing link between sustainable transformation and financial benefits. The aim is to chart a path towards unprecedented, relevant, and collective climate action for the car industry.
The Polestar 0 project is one project addressing lever 3—reducing GHG emissions in the manufacturing supply chain. Polestar is actively collaborating with global partners across diverse fields, harnessing their expertise to help develop new solutions to address the project's unprecedented challenges. Each new partner joining us contributes to the creation of groundbreaking methods in car manufacturing. The expertise, insights, and solutions our partners acquire on this collective journey will resonate across their wider business activities and society.
About Fredrika Klarén, Head of Sustainability, Polestar
Fredrika Klarén joined Polestar in April 2020 to drive the company’s sustainability ambitions forward through for strategic focus areas: climate-neutrality, circularity, transparency and inclusion. She is a firm believer in the role of business as a catalyst for sustainable development and has held sustainability positions over the past decade at IKEA and Swedish fashion retailer KappAhl.
Fredrika studied Civil Engineering with a focus on Environmental Systems Analysis at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has developed Polestar’s sustainability strategy and is pushing the company to embrace transparency throughout. Through enabling the company to conduct business in a sustainable, ethical and responsible way, Fredrika has demonstrated that the car industry can in fact be a driver for positive change. Being an expert in her field as well as an exceptional public speaker, Fredrika has been invited to speak at numerous global events, delivering inspiring keynote speeches at events such as Financial Times’ Future of Mobility, The Next Web and Reuters Events. Fredrika was recently announced on sustainability trade Green Biz’s 2022 edition of ‘25 badass women shaping climate action’, named one of the top 30 Power Players in the EV-field by Business Insider, and awarded Sustainability Executive of the Year by BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2022.