Polestar is now truly in business with the official opening of their first production facility where it will begin to make the company’s first model – the 600hp/1,000Nm carbon-bodied Polestar 1 electric performance hybrid. The factory is located in Chengdu, China and will cater for local and international markets with customer expected to receive their purchase before the end of 2019.

Thomas Ingenlath, chief executive officer of Polestar, comments: ““We promised we would have our first production facility built in 2019, we promised cars would be delivered to customers this year, and we promised we would do things differently – once again we are delivering on our promises. This is a hugely proud moment for the whole team at Polestar.”

The factory is designed to be one of the most environmentally responsible car factories in China and will target in achieving one of its objectives of achieving Gold status in the globally recognised LEED rating (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

If nothing else, let’s just appreciate how clean it looks. Perhaps, sterile is a better adjective – especially on the factory floor. Is Polestar also a pharmaceutical company? No? Could have fooled us.

Polestar expects to assemble 500 units of the Polestar 1 annually, with 1,500 planned over a three year production cycle. The company will later start production of the Polestar 2 model at a different factory located in Luqiao, China, in early 2020.

At the same time, Polestar has also received its World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) which officially recognises the company as a stand-alone vehicle OEM.