Polestar, the electric performance car brand jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and China's Zhejiang Geely Holding, opened its first production facility in Chengdu, China. The milestone comes as it announced receiving World Manufacturing Identifier, officiating it as a standalone car company.
The Polestar Production Center in Chengdu was designed by world-renowned architecture and design firm, Snohetta. The facility boasts of a hub exclusively designated for the customers. It was also built with a test track and a glazed atrium overlooking a panoramic view of the whole facility.
Most importantly, the center marked an important milestone for the electric vehicle maker as it will be the production house for the Polestar 1. The car model is highly-anticipated in the market for being a carbon fiber-bodied Electric Performance Hybrid running with 600 hp and 1,000 Nm of torque.
Polestar 1 is being touted as the most premium new energy vehicle to be coming out in China. Apart from Polestar 1, the Chengdu facility will henceforth become the production house for electric vehicles that Polestar will be exporting to international markets.
The announcement of its Chengdu facility came a few months after the company debuted the Polestar 2 in Shanghai of which production will take place in Luquiao, Zhejiang Province by 2020. The Shanghai facility will be the production house of other world-class models to be produced for Volvo and Lynk & Co. Polestar 2 is set to become the first car on the modular chassis to feature a fully electric drivetrain, the company announced at the time.
China remains to be the world's largest market for electric vehicles driven primarily by its government staunch support of going green. The Polestar Chengdu facility proves once again that the Asian powerhouse is rapidly becoming the seat of quality car manufacturing and industrialization.
Faced with several challenges, the Chinese market for electric vehicles managed to increase by 1.8 percent in May. The country sold 104,000 units this year compared to the same period in 2018. The figure may have been the slowest growth to date but the numbers indicated that China continues to be resilient.
In 2018, there were more than 5.1 million units of electric car fleets sold around the world, up by 2 million compared to the number of units sold in 2018. China accounted for the greater majority of that number, eclipsing sales from the European region and the United States. Norway, meanwhile, is becoming the third-largest electric car market since 2018.
