Polestar 5 to Use New, Less-Expensive Bonded Aluminum Chassis Tech
Though it was once the province of sports cars and exotics, Polestar found a way to make bonded aluminum cheaper by simplifying the build process.
Most modern cars are built these days with a plain ol' unibody chassis. That means the car has a steel (sometimes aluminum) space frame that's spot-welded together, and then the body is bolted or welded to it. More exotic cars like Lotuses use what's called a bonded aluminum chassis, and Polestar is getting in on that game with its forthcoming Polestar 5, the company announced Tuesday.
What exactly is a bonded aluminum chassis, and why is it a good thing? Well, a bonded aluminum chassis uses aluminum plates and extrusions, which are glued together using special superstrong adhesive. This makes for a chassis that's both especially lightweight and especially rigid. It's pretty standard for high-end sports cars and supercars these days before you start getting into true exotica with carbon fiber tubs.
Having a lighter and more rigid platform is a boon to any car, but especially so for an EV. This is because the lighter an EV is, the better its theoretical range can be because it spends less energy dragging its own weight around. Rigidity also increases favorable handling characteristics, allowing engineers to more accurately tune suspension components without having to calculate the effects of chassis flex.
The downside of bonded aluminum construction is that it's typically labor-intensive and therefore expensive to use, which makes it not ideal for more affordable models. Polestar has figured a way around this that allows the chassis and body to be constructed in unison, reducing the number of construction steps and making the whole process cheaper. Winner winner surströmming dinner!
The new technology was created by a team of 280 engineers at Polestar's UK research and development center, which is situated right in the heart of Coventry, near some of the best-known and most respected motorsports companies in the world.
The Polestar 5 is expected to debut in 2023 as a 2024 model.
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