1kgCO2e for Polestar

The automotive industry has an emissions budget, as does every other industry, and every one of us. A boundary we need to stay within to avoid exceeding 1.5°C of warming.

Materials are rarely invisible. They show up in the product, in the surface, in how an object ages. But their climate impact is another matter, hidden in supply chains, in energy sources, in decisions made long before a product reaches anyone’s hands.

That invisibility is what 1kgCO2e investigates. The question is always the same: how much of a material do you get for one kilogram of carbon dioxide equivalents? In Polestar’s version of the exhibition, the perspective widened to the automotive industry. On two podiums, materials used in cars were displayed: on one, conventional materials from the global market, on the other, the same types of materials in low-carbon versions. The same function. Radically different climate impact.

In an electric car like the Polestar 4, almost no emissions occur during the use phase, provided it is charged with renewable energy. Production is another story. Battery modules, aluminium and steel dominate, and material choices account for up to 70–90 percent of the car’s total carbon footprint. That means material choices, not the drivetrain, are the decisive question for the automotive industry’s climate transition.

Polestar, together with Rivian and Kearney, has developed a roadmap to keep the industry within budget. Three levers: fossil-free cars by 2032, renewable energy in all power grids by 2033, and reduced emissions in the supply chain, where materials play the central role. The most ambitious goal is Polestar 0: to eliminate, not offset, all greenhouse gas emissions from materials and production by 2030.

The exhibition was shown at COP28 in Dubai, at the launch of the Polestar 4 in China, and at Polestar’s showroom in Sweden. Knowing what generates emissions is the starting point for reducing them. That is true for the furniture industry. It is true for the automotive industry. It is true for all of us.