New Polestar ‘Precept’ EV Revealed

Meet the ‘Precept’ – Polestars new high-performance concept EV saloon

Polestar is an interesting company. Owned by Volvo and Geely, Polestar itself is based in Sweden while manufacturing takes place in China. Volvo acquired Polestar Performance in 2015 and announced that the company would commence production of performance electric cars as a direct competitor to the likes of Tesla.

The Polestar Precept is an EV concept vehicle that fits the bill nicely, managing to achieve a classic yet modern design that will rival the Tesla S. Now an actual physical model rather than a digital concept, the Precept is starting to become very real. CEO of Polestar, Thomas Ingenlath, says that the Precept showcases the future of Polestar.

While the Polestar Precept still does not have a definite production plan, and does still remain a concept, there is a definite feeling that this – or something very much like this – will materialise at some point in the near future.

Polestar calls this a grand tourer, and that is pretty much all we are being allowed to know at the moment. But in the meantime, what we can do is be very impressed by the way the Precept looks. A seamless combination of sleek aerodynamic lines and some crisp, sharp edges maybe shouldn’t work together as well as this, but it does work and the Precept looks every bit a classic in the making. We do know that this electric 4-door saloon will feature an all-electric powertrain and a 3.1 metre wheelbase.

In 2014 Volvo revealed its new architecture, the SPA2 – a global unibody that was first used with the Volvo XC90. One of the reasons that Polestar offers such an interesting prospect is that the company has the ability to dip into the famously safe and secure Volvo ethos, and the parent company say that SPA2 offers significant improvements regarding protection in what they call ‘worst-case scenarios’ – in effect, the SPA2 platform offers some well thought out technology to help protect the driver as well as assist in avoiding accidents. Volvo has a lot invested in this architecture, not least the 90 billion SEK that the company has invested, so it is pretty reasonable to expect that the Polestar  Precept will make good use of SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) 2.

With a 3.1 metre wheelbase and the images we can see, it has been estimated that the Precept may possibly be approximately 4.7 metres long in total – close to the Tesla S at 4.98 metres.

The Polestar Precept concept incorporates a SmartZone; an area of the Precept where an HD camera and sensors will be housed to assist the car’s numerous safety devices and (potential) autonomous driving – and regarding that latter point, a larger than expected Lidar sensor also sits atop the roof at the front. Headlights are seamlessly incorporates within the aerodynamic design, and the rear lights are an all-in-one affair in one unbroken line from wing to wing. It’s details like this that allows the sharp lines and the curves to connect so well.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the design is not immediately obvious until you open the doors. The two rear doors open in the opposite direction to which you would expect, and this allows for the removal of the normally integral B-pillars. Naturally, we would expect that the roof and doors to be strengthened to compensate for such a drastic change in structure, but it does allow for easier access to the interior.

Inside, the Precept uses an Android based operating system incorporated into an instrument panel that sits behind the steering wheel on the dashboard and measures 12.5-inches.

With Volvo’s announcement that Polestar would soon begin producing high-performance vehicles, we can expect that the tech spec (when it arrives) will be fairly impressive, and the sleek, sporty design certainly hints at big things to come.