Electric vehicle newcomer Polestar has secured a deal with world-class battery makers Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and LG Chem to power its upcoming Polestar 2 that is due to arrive in Australia next year.
The ten-year deal will see the two companies supply electric car batteries to Polestar, Volvo’s electric car brand that has evolved from its eponymous Polestar PHEV.
Starting with the Polestar 2, the Swedish-Chinese carmaker’s first 100% electric car, LG Chem and CATL batteries will be used in the brand’s planned stable of electric vehicles that will also include a Polestar 3 SUV coupe.
“With these suppliers in place we have the secure knowledge that our electric performance cars will be powered by high-quality batteries that our customers can rely on,” said Polestar boss Thomas Ingenlath in a statement to the press.
The dual agreement will no doubt hedge any possibility of battery supply issues for the company, which has a sales target of up to 1,800 units in Australia alone when it launches.
CATL, which in April posted a 48% increase in revenue year-on-year according to Xinhuanet, is China’s leading li-ion battery supplier and in 2018 produced a total of 23.4GWh in batteries for electric vehicles.
However LG Chem, which supplies batteries for a number of European carmakers including the Volkswagen and Daimler groups, has reportedly been short on supply of batteries, causing delivery delays for Audi’s flagship vehicle the E-tron.
The Polestar, which will have a starting price of €39,900 ($A63,720 at today’s rates) in Germany, has been likened to EV pioneer Tesla and even touted as a possible serious competitor against the Californian carmaker, who sources batteries from Panasonic.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.