Polestar puts its name on a CAKE electric moped

A car brand on two wheels

On 6 September 2021, Polestar and the Swedish electric motorbike maker CAKE announce their first joint product: a special version of CAKE's new compact Makka, called the Makka, Polestar edition by CAKE.¹ It is shown for the first time at IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich.¹ The two companies present the project as a statement of their shared aim to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility.¹

For a car brand, a moped is an unusual product. Polestar does not build it and does not sell it as a vehicle of its own. It lends it something else: its colours, its design language and its customers. The edition shows how far a brand built on minimalist design can travel beyond the product it was founded on.

The brand in the details

The edition is a tailored version of the moped with a number of styling changes: a slim LED headlight, an Öhlins rear damper, black details, and a frame and battery cover in matt Polestar Snow.¹ In Polestar's words, CAKE's fully electric drivetrains and Polestar's minimalist design features connect the two brands and their vehicles further.¹

The link is practical as well as visual. The light moped is designed to work together with the Polestar 2: it can be carried on a tow bar mount at the rear of the car and charged from the car while driving.¹ Once parked, it serves as a last-mile commuter, as urban transport or for trips off-road.¹ Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar, describes the connection literally: "The lightweight bike connects with Polestar 2 via a cord that allows it to charge from our car".² He calls the edition "the next step in our brand collaboration" and says it "gives us a chance to tackle broader mobility challenges."²

Kindred spirits

The collaboration grows out of a relationship between the two chief executives. According to an industry report, it begins in 2019, when Ingenlath and Stefan Ytterborn, founder and CEO of CAKE, find that their companies share brand values; a first step brings CAKE's motorbikes into Polestar showrooms in Europe and joint events.³ In May 2020 Polestar publishes an interview with Ytterborn in its news section, in which he describes a shared, rational approach to making excellent and beautiful products.⁴

Ytterborn frames the moped as an argument against the car as the default in cities: "Instead of wasting time in a traffic jam, finding a parking spot or squashing up in a crowded train, we want to make the future of mobility flexible, accessible and emission-free".² That a car brand puts its name to this sentence is the point of the collaboration. Polestar positions itself as a mobility brand with a view on how cities should work, not only as a seller of cars.

A webshop for the brand

The moped is planned as a flagship product of the new Polestar Additionals webshop, which also sells lifestyle products such as T-shirts, hoodies, bags and water bottles.¹ At launch the edition is offered in Sweden, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland.¹ The webshop turns Polestar's design into a range of objects customers can buy without buying a car, and the moped gives that range a product with real substance.

According to Polestar, the first series in matt Snow sells out immediately.⁵ On 14 December 2022 Polestar and CAKE announce a second limited edition, now in the colour sky, the light blue first used on the Polestar O2 electric roadster concept, which is to go into production as the Polestar 6.⁵ The second edition adds a removable rear rack for crates, luggage carriers or a passenger seat, has a top speed of 45 km/h and two riding modes, and is sold through the Additionals webshop for EUR 5,300 in 14 markets including the United States and Canada; CAKE sells and delivers it.⁵ In Germany it is displayed at Polestar Space Stuttgart.⁵

Colour as a carrier

The choice of colours shows how the collaboration works for the car brand. Snow is a Polestar paint; sky comes from a concept car that most customers will see only in pictures. By putting a concept colour on a moped they can buy, Polestar lets the roadster's identity reach the street years before the car itself. The webshop also lists a Polestar edition of the Allebike Alpha mountain bike, which shows the format being extended.⁵

The partner proves less durable than the idea. In February 2024 CAKE files for insolvency, and sales are suspended.⁶ The two Makka editions remain Polestar's most visible step onto two wheels: a moped in Polestar colours that charges from a Polestar.