Polestar Design Contest’21 Finalists : Student Category

Polestar Smart Delivery : Subha Kundu

Polestar Smart Delivery is an autonomous delivery vehicle on an entirely new level.

Parcels today are hand-delivered by drivers to homes or office buildings. In the future, with the advent of autonomous delivery vehicles, customers will likely retrieve their parcels directly from a delivery vehicle. This new format will have vehicles that directly face the customer, meaning they will need to be intuitive to use. They’ll also need a heightened level of design quality compared to today’s vans. The Polestar Smart Delivery pod by student designer Subha Kundu imagines just such a scenario.

Designed as an autonomous last-mile delivery vehicle that re-envisions the delivery van, this design features storage modules that slide out at the rear of the vehicle, notifications on all sides to communicate with the user, and an aesthetic aligned with Polestar that presents an elevated level of quality.

Being a new customer touchpoint that requires a higher level of design. Polestar Smart Delivery shows the potential for design-lead brands like Polestar to be part of the future of autonomous delivery vehicles.

Polestar KOJA : Kristian Talvitie

A small building which reduces the need for travel while also bringing people closer to nature.

While it is easy to focus on important technologies that will shape future travel, the world is also recognizing the imperative to travel less. This response to the climate crisis may have even greater bearing on the future of mobility, and how we live, than innovations in vehicle design.

Embracing this need to reduce travel is KOJA from student designer Kristian Talvitie. It’s not a vehicle, but a new form of small building in a tree canopy that provides a rich, immersive experience in a natural environment. This makes it more accessible for people who otherwise would need to travel far to experience the wilderness.

The design maximizes the treetops view with a panoramic glazed aspect, and minimizes ecological impact with a space-efficient, low resource-use design. Fundamentally, it encourages a positive change in society, helping to reduce travel.

Polestar Trambus : Jeong Hyun Kim

A re-envisioning of both bus and tram, and our relationship to public transportation.

Today, buses and trams have drivers. In the future, these vehicles may be autonomous, which could then unlock the potential for a new form of “trambus”. Student designer Jeong Hyun Kim envisions Trambus as a vehicle consisting of carriages which can operate independently or when joined together. No driver would be needed, and each carriage would have independent power and control. Services could depart from a city-center transport hub as a conjoined series of carriages, and then separate into single carriages to enable passengers to reach different locations away from the city center.

As well as suggesting a new type of vehicle, Trambus reflects the shift in how people use public transportation in the digital age, with a flexible interior design that enables travelers to sit, stand, or even using a standing desk.

Through its use of form, graphics, and text design, Trambus shows the potential for a more modern and desirable form of public transport, and how a progressive brand like Polestar could be part of this.

Polestar Vasa : Yongkang Son

A bike-like vehicle and display which enables a virtual, high-performance driving experience.

Many of today’s future mobility design ideas focus on how autonomous cars will unlock new opportunities to travel without having to drive. This design, from student designer Yongkang Son, responds to this scenario, enabling people to have a thrilling high-speed driving experience they may otherwise not be able to realize, doing so virtually.

Polestar Vasa combines a physical bike-like vehicle, sat on with feet either forward or rearward, that levitates using electromagnetic suspension like today’s Maglev trains, with a virtual journey experienced through a wrap-around display.

In a world where the visceral pleasure of high-performance driving may no longer be possible, Vasa presents a new form of high-performance vehicle that doesn’t actually move. It could be part of a change in behavior that enables a dramatic reduction in energy consumption, while potentially elevating the excitement of high-performance driving.

Polestar Glad To Be Dirty : Mingwei Liu

A car which tackles local pollution with on-board, on-display filters.

Historically, the car has been a source of local pollution. While electric cars have addressed this by having zero tailpipe emissions, this design, by student designer Mingwei Liu, seeks to go one step further by filtering the air it drives through to remove harmful particulates, and to show-off this capability with literally dirty filters. Hence the name: “Glad To Be Dirty”.

The design is a small, simple geometric car with and an architectural take on the Polestar design vocabulary, and a core side panel that then displays the progressively dirty air filter, displaying how much the car is cleaning the environment as it goes, and allowing the user to feel proud of driving a dirty car.

Local pollution, particularly in crowed cities, is a major health hazard. This design encourages people to embrace the process of cleaning the air, making a difference to the quality of their shared environment.

About Contest

The brief was to design a vehicle that encourages societal progression. That offers solutions to current and ongoing problems, such as the climate crisis.

Winners of the 2021 Polestar Design Contest will be flown to either Polestar Chengdu or Polestar Headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden (whichever is closer to the winner’s country of residence) to attend the Polestar Design Exhibition, as well as to experience both the brand and the cars up close.

To aid in their continued development as designers, they’ll also receive a computer and tablet, along with a trophy. Accommodations and travel expenses will be arranged and covered by Polestar.

The Polestar Design Contest features a truly expert jury. Polestar Head of Design Maximilian Missoni, Senior Design Manager Juan Pablo Bernal and Car Design Research Director Sam Livingstone are the ones who will evaluate every submission, pore over every detail, and ultimately determine the winners of the contest.