Polestar promises a climate-neutral car by 2030

A goal stated before the method exists

On 7 April 2021, together with its first annual review, Polestar announces the Polestar 0 project: the aim to create the first truly climate-neutral car by 2030.^1,2 The definition is strict. The car is to leave the factory gates with a zero-carbon footprint, and the target is to be met by eliminating all emissions throughout the supply chain and production rather than by planting trees to compensate for them.^3,1

Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar, puts the position in four words: "Offsetting is a cop-out."¹ He describes the gap the project is meant to close in two sentences: "Today, Polestar 2 leaves the factory gates with a carbon footprint."¹ "In 2030, we want to present a car that does not."² Until offsetting solutions with proven results exist, offsetting is treated as a last resort.³

Transparency first

The announcement rests on a communication decision taken half a year earlier. On 16 September 2020 Polestar publishes the full life cycle assessment of the Polestar 2, including its methodology, and calls on the industry to follow.⁴ The number it reveals is not flattering. The Polestar 2 leaves the factory with a footprint of 26 tonnes CO2e, more than a petrol Volvo XC40 at that stage, mainly because of battery production, and only overtakes the petrol car in total emissions after 31,000 miles of driving.⁴ "Car manufacturers have not been clear in the past with consumers on the environmental impact of their products," Ingenlath says at the time.⁴ Fredrika Klarén, Head of Sustainability, adds a warning against each maker using its own method: "Fragmentation will only lead to confusion."⁴

Polestar 0 turns that disclosure into a product feature. The brand introduces a Product Sustainability Declaration for all its models, starting with the Polestar 2, a label that states the carbon footprint and the traced risk materials and is shown on the website and in Polestar Spaces.^1,2 In May 2021 Polestar adds a partnership with Circulor, whose blockchain traceability already follows cobalt in the Polestar 2 batteries and is extended to materials such as nickel, mica, lithium and graphite, as well as to the CO2e of individual facilities.⁵ The climate targets are also written into the company's bonus system.¹

A moonshot in the brand's own words

Polestar does not claim to know how the car will be built. Klarén calls it "truly a moonshot goal" and borrows the comparison openly: "Just like JFK, we don't know how to land on the moon but we know that we need to do it."⁶ Battery, aluminium and steel make up about 70 per cent of the Polestar 2 footprint, by her estimate, which marks where the work has to start.⁶ Ingenlath frames the difficulty as the purpose: "By pushing ourselves to create a completely climate-neutral car, we are forced to reach beyond what is possible today."⁷

For a young brand competing with established premium makers, the move defines a position that others cannot simply copy with a campaign. An unmet, dated promise is a risk. It is also a story the brand can return to every year, with every new report, and it gives the word "sustainable" in Polestar's communication a measurable reference instead of an adjective.

Partners and a revised date

On 23 February 2022 Polestar names the first partners through letters of intent: SSAB for fossil-free steel, Hydro for zero-carbon aluminium, ZF, Autoliv and ZKW.⁸ The call stays open to suppliers, researchers, universities, investors and NGOs. "It was clear from the start that this is not a solo mission," Ingenlath says.⁸ Hans Pehrson, head of the Polestar 0 project, sets out the bet behind the timeline: "We believe in the exponential development of climate solution technologies."⁸

The bet is tested in the following reports. In April 2025 Polestar reports a cut of 24.7 per cent in emissions per sold car since 2020 and says its partners have identified solutions that would reduce a 2020 Polestar 2 from about 26 to 16 tonnes CO2e.⁹ In April 2026 the brand reports a cut of 31 per cent and revises the project: the goal is now "a net-zero car without offsets by 2035", and the release states that the initial 2030 timeline has been revised.^10,11 Research continues at the Mission 0 House, a research centre set up in Sweden in 2025 with five Swedish higher education institutions and six companies.¹¹

"The Polestar 0 project pushes us into new territory," Klarén says with the 2026 report.¹¹ The principle announced in 2021 stays in place: emissions are to be removed from the car, not bought off. What changes is the date, and the brand communicates the change in the same report format in which it first made the promise.