Polestar’s New EV Concept Comes With … a Boomerang Drone?

Further details about the concept car are scant. As you can see from the pictures, the angular design continues the company’s overall aesthetic. The low and wide body with minimal overhangs and a long wheelbase mirrors classic sports car proportions, but Polestar hopes it will go head to head with the continually delayed Tesla Roadster, first unveiled way back in 2017.

While the 4.65-meter-long car will supposedly use the same battery as the coming Polestar 5, aerodynamics are used to maximize the O₂‘s unspecified range with “disguised” design features, including integrated ducts to improve air flow over the wheels and body sides, and rear lights that function as air blades to reduce turbulence behind the car.

This being a Polestar, even if only a concept, sustainability was inevitably going to feature. Here, a thermoplastic mono-material—made from a single material without any mixed fibers and so easier to recycle—is employed in much of the interior. It’s been used as the sole material for all the soft components: foam, adhesive, 3D-knit fibers, and non-woven lamination. Additionally, the different grades of aluminum used in the construction will be labeled, so they can be recycled more easily and efficiently. 

Now let’s turn to the far less credible drone. Polestar’s engineers have developed a specialized airfoil that rises behind the rear seats to create a “calm area” of negative pressure that would allow the drone to take off when the car is on the move.

Once in flight, the drone would then operate autonomously, following the car at speeds up to 56 mph. Using the main cabin touchscreen, the driver can choose between an “atmospheric” sequence (“great for a coastline cruise”) or an “action” sequence with “a sportier expression,” whatever that means.

After filming, the drone would then return to the car, where video clips can be edited and shared directly from the 15-inch center display once the car is parked. The whole thing sounds like the automotive equivalent of a mirrored ceiling.

China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group owns Polestar, along with other car brands such as Lotus and Volvo, and many other companies in other sectors. One of these is the drone maker Aerofugia, formed in 2017 out of a merger between Geely and US-based Terrafugia, developer of those hideous flying cars. Aerofugia’s consumer brand, Hoco Flow, a brand for which I can find no online information, has apparently worked with Polestar on the design of this mobile launching drone, intended to “record the perfect driving sequence.” 

I asked if Polestar also has a prototype of the drone to go with its physical version of the O₂, and what its confirmed capabilities were, such as flight time and collision avoidance system. I was told that the company had “not gone that far at this stage in terms of functionality, and there are no prototypes.”

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