‘Animal welfare-secured nappa’ makes it into the Polestar 4
Electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar unveiled its latest model, an electric sports utility vehicle coupé, the Polestar 4, at the Shanghai Auto Show in mid-April. The car will come to market in 2024.
Polestar described the new model as combining the aerodynamics of a coupé, the space of an SUV and the new technology of the electric vehicle age. It has a stretched, panoramic roof to make the interior light and airy, but it has no rear window.
Instead of a back windscreen, the car has a rear-facing, high-definition camera, which Polestar says provides a wider field of vision.
It said it had developed the car in keeping with one of the company’s core principles: to have a smaller environmental footprint. It said this included using materials that are “more responsibly sourced”, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing transparency and promoting circularity.
As part of this, it will offer two leather options for the interior of the Polestar 4, in addition to material it describes as “bio-attributed microtech”. The leather is from Bridge of Weir, part of Scottish Leather Group.
Polestar is presenting the leather as “animal welfare-secured nappa”, which is available in two colours, zinc and charcoal. Following its launch in 2017, the automotive company presented an anti-leather stance in much of its early messages to the market. A change of heart came in 2022.
It said it had decided to use leather because it had become convinced that it was possible to source leather that meets its sustainability credentials: living up to the strictest standards on animal welfare, as well as being being fully traceable and chrome-free. A full account of the role Scottish Leather Group played in changing Polestar’s position on leather is available here and here.
The leather manufacturing group was represented at the presentation of the Polestar 4 in Shanghai. Its chief commercial officer, Nick Muirhead, said the new car was “a fantastic achievement of engineering, design and sustainability”.
He went on to say that, the Bridge of Weir leather in the interior, which the group presents as the lowest-carbon leather in the world, was “setting the benchmark for sustainable leather manufacturing”.
