Polestar, the Volvo high-performance sub-brand, has stunned attendees at this year’s IAA event with a stunning hypercar concept.
The collaborative design project by Polestar is an example of creation by community, with more than 600 entries received from a global talent pool. Polestar’s brief was simple: a high-performance car with a theme of suitability. The result is its Synergy – symbolizing the collaborative nature of the project.
Chief designers at Polestar selected ten entries with significant merit before adjudicating two finalists. The winning designers were Devashish Deshmukh and Swapnil Desai, both based in Paris, France.
Notable design elements by Deshmukh and Desai were hollowed-out volumes for the Synergy, inspired by the hammerhead shark shape. The cabin architecture of Polestar’s Synergy was the work of Yingxiang Li, from China.
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The making of a Polestar hypercar
Deshmukh, Desai and Li worked with Polestar’s design team for six months to create the Synergy. Measuring 4.56m long and standing only 1.06m tall, with a central driving position, the Synergy looks like an LMP configuration Le Mans racer.
The idea of a hypercar Volvo would be peculiar, even as a concept. But as a Polestar, the Synergy works because Volvo’s EV sub-brand is all about high-performance motoring and dramatic design. Polestar has the brand latitude to deliver an outrageous concept car, such as the Synergy, without creating needless brand tension.
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More Polestar Community projects coming
Maximillian Missoni, Polestar’s head of design, sees great value in the project. “It’s not often student designers receive such exposure at the start of their career, something the Polestar Design Community on Instagram does so well, amplified this year by the 1:1 scale model and its planned tour of brand locations around the world.”
Polestar will continue its design-by-community project with a new Hot Wheels joint venture. Designers will be invited to produce concepts drawing inspiration from five and a half decades of Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. The winning concepts will then be made as a toy car in scale by Mattel.
