Polestar and Candela build a flying boat

A car brand on the water

On 23 May 2023, Polestar and the Swedish boatbuilder Candela present the Candela C-8 Polestar edition, an electric hydrofoil boat in Polestar design.¹ Polestar calls it the next phase of the partnership between the two companies.¹ On its own website the brand lists the boat under its "Co-Lab" projects.²

The boat is the most ambitious object to carry the Polestar name outside the car range. The brand has done editions before, among them the Makka moped with CAKE and a mountain bike with Allebike.¹ With a boat that rises out of the water on computer-guided foils, Polestar moves its idea of electric performance into a different element.

The battery comes first

The design edition rests on a technical partnership that predates it. On 23 August 2022 Polestar and Candela announce a multi-year agreement under which Polestar supplies batteries and charging systems for Candela's boats.³ "As a battery supplier to Candela, we can help drive the transition to cleaner oceans and lakes," says Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar.³ Gustav Hasselskog, founder and CEO of Candela, gives the reason from the other side: "While electrification of cars has come a long way in the last few years, the marine sector has been lagging behind."³

Hasselskog also names the scale he has in mind: "To make electric boats mainstream, we need to build thousands of boats every year."⁴ For a small boatbuilder, a supplier with car-industry volumes is the shortcut to that scale; for Polestar, it is a second market for a component it already makes.

By January 2023 Candela fits Polestar batteries to all C-8 boats on order.⁵ The pack is the 69 kWh battery of the Polestar 2 Standard Range Single Motor, together with its charging hardware, and it drives Candela's 75 kW C-POD electric motor.^1,2 On its partnership page Polestar groups the supply under the heading "Powered by Polestar".²

What makes it a Polestar

The edition adds the design layer. The exterior is a solid light grey, the interior a lighter grey, and the hydrofoils are painted gold, a colour the release calls Swedish gold and Polestar's own page calls Polestar Gold.^1,2 The same marine-certified textile covers seats, cushions, sunbeds and wall and roof panels, with specially designed seat upholstery; the German page describes the seat as covered in blue fabric.^1,2

The gold carries the brand. It sits on the foils, the part that is hidden at rest and becomes visible only when the boat lifts its hull out of the water.² The brand detail is placed exactly on the technology that defines the boat. Maximilian Missoni, Head of Design at Polestar, makes the same connection in words: "Candela's hydrofoil technology is a paradigm shift for sustainable performance in the marine industry."¹ Hasselskog sees design as part of the same mission: "Aesthetic excellence is an intrinsic value, but it can also serve as a powerful driving force towards a sustainable future."⁶

Performance at sea

The foils are the reason a car battery is enough. According to the release, they cut energy use by up to 80 per cent compared with conventional motorboats, and the C-8 Polestar edition reaches up to 57 nautical miles on one charge at a cruising speed of 22 knots.¹ Polestar's page adds that the foils also reduce noise.² Hasselskog states Candela's aim: "At Candela, our primary focus is to create vessels that are more compelling in every respect."¹

The boat is built at Candela's factory in Stockholm, priced from EUR 400,000 or USD 450,000, and sold through the Polestar Additionals webshop or through Candela, which also delivers it.¹ Deliveries are planned from June 2024, and in July 2024 designboom reports that Candela has begun delivering the first boats.^1,7

What the boat does for the brand

Few people will buy a boat at this price, and that is not its main task. It shows that Polestar's battery and its design are strong enough to stand on their own in another industry, and it places the brand in a premium leisure world that car advertising rarely reaches. Both companies are Swedish and build their case on electric performance, so the edition reads as a natural pairing rather than a licence deal.

The pairing continues after the launch. At the Sydney Harbour Concours d'Elegance in 2025 Polestar and Candela share a Swedish Performance Hub, and Candela's Australian distributor offers test flights in the C-8.⁸ Scott Maynard, Managing Director of Polestar Australia, describes the logic behind such partnerships: "Polestar partners with industry-leaders who push the boundaries in their respective fields."⁸