The body of a car sits raised in an empty warehouse.

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Driving the circular economy forward

Innovation

Polestar makes electric cars which, when charged with energy from renewable or fossil-free sources, have negligible use-phase emissions. But going electric is only a start. The supply chain emissions remain. Therefore, Polestar has set ambitious targets to reduce emissions throughout the value chain and has also developed roadmaps for reaching them.

Here, recycling and reuse play an important role. As part of the journey towards increased circularity, Polestar asked Stena Circular Consulting (SCC) for help in gaining knowledge about how the end-of-vehicle market works for electric cars. SCC also conducted a study on how to improve the design process to be as compatible with the circular economy as possible.

“Sustainability lies at the heart of what Polestar is. We are a performance brand, determined to improve the society we live in by accelerating the transition to sustainable mobility. The use of materials is at the root of our biggest social and environmental impacts. By using a circular approach and trying to close the loop for more materials, we take action on many of the global and complex sustainability challenges we face today. Our ambition is that the materials in our cars should allow for at least 85 percent closed-loop recycling – without loss in material quality. A major challenge for the industry is the lack of technology to make such recycling of individual car parts economically feasible. Together with Stena Circular Consulting we aim to build a better understanding of the challenges involved to influence change,” says Sander Jahilo, Circular Lead, Polestar

“Sustainability is one of the key pillars for Polestar and circularity is one of the focus areas in its sustainability strategy. Working together with one of the frontrunners in the automotive industry has been a true privilege. This is a great example of how Polestar, through the project, is getting a head start in designing and creating systems for a car that can be fully circular. We have done our utmost to assist in this work in the best possible way,” says Mats Linder, Head of Operations, Stena Circular Consulting

Three main take-aways from the projectAs of today, end-of-life recycling is designed around fragmentation, which works well for metals but captures very little value from plastics composites and electronics – all of which increase as a share of the total weight in electric vehicles (EV).

Battery recycling is growing and generates a great yield of critical raw materials (CRM), but lags behind demand for the next 10 years. Securing supply for the great EV push becomes a crucial success factor for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

There are many design opportunities to make a car more circular, but they need to be aligned with corresponding systems and business model innovation.