Roadster concept shares much with the 2024 Polestar 5, but is there much demand for EVs of this body style?
- Polestar O2 concept imagines a sleek, two-door battery-electric hardtop roadster and is based on the upcoming Polestar 5 four-door, due in 2024.
- The roadster features a deployable drone created by Hoco Flow that can follow the car along while filming it.
- Polestar has not shared any statements regarding possible production plans, focusing on other segments for the next several years.
Polestar has taken the wraps off a stunning new concept, revealing an electric roadster based on a platform that will underpin the 2024 Polestar 5.
Dubbed the Polestar O2 Concept, the sharp-edged two-door roadster features modest overhangs and compact proportions, with a blacked out A-pillar that may remind some of the Nissan Z car, among others.
The concept features lots of rhomboid shapes—a recognizable Polestar theme by now—along with elegantly sculpted surfaces. Viewed with the side windows up, the roadster features a single visual line from the top of the A-pillar to the dramatic aerofoil and rear deck.
“Polestar O2 is the hero car for our brand,” comments Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. “It opens the door to our secret chamber of future potential. This is a taste of what we can design and engineer with the talent and technology we have in-house. It looks incredible, and being able to lower the roof and not hear an engine promises a superb sensation.”
The interior, meanwhile, is trimmed in recycled polyester applied to all the soft surfaces, reflecting the automaker’s commitment to using sustainably sourced materials.
The O2 concept borrows much of its design from the Precept concept (pictured above), which previews the Polestar 5.
Polestar
For now, Polestar isn’t sharing its drivetrain specifications or saying whether the O2 has a strong chance of seeing production in the future. The Polestar 5 four-door grand tourer is certainly headed to customer driveways in a couple years, but the automaker is calling the O2 a concept for now.
It’s logical Polestar would focus on volume models with more mass-market appeal, even though the Polestar 1 was quite exclusive (and expensive). The brand needs to embrace the more popular segments in the coming years, as will parent company Volvo.
But when it comes to a halo model, the O2 concept could certainly attract buyers who may have been waiting years for a second Tesla Roadster.
The O2 roadster concept features one other modern item that has become surprisingly popular: a deployable drone created by Aerofugia’s consumer electronics brand Hoco Flow. The drone can deploy from behind the rear seats and follow overhead, capturing footage of the car on picturesque roads.
The O2 concept features an interior trimmed with recycled polyester.
Polestar
“We wanted to emphasize the experience you can have with a car like the Polestar O2 in new and unusual ways,” says Maximilian Missoni, Polestar’s head of design. “Integrating an autonomous cinematic drone was something that allowed us to push the boundaries on the innovation front. Not needing to stop and off-load the drone before filming, but rather deploying it at speed, is a key benefit to this innovative design.”
Nevertheless, we’re skeptical about the consumer market chances of electric roadsters in the next five years. Roadsters and convertibles enjoy very little demand in China, aside from imported high-priced exotics, while hopes of sales volumes in Europe and elsewhere are pushing automakers to crossovers at the moment.
This is why we haven’t seen Tesla make the next-gen roadster a priority, and why we haven’t noted roadster hints from automakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, which have significantly diverse EV lineups by now.
In short, Polestar needs to cover other segments (certainly to bolster the bottom line) before they can think seriously about roadsters.
Keyword: Polestar O2 Concept Hints at Our Sleek Future