Polestar 5 Life Cycle Assessment exposes where EV emissions really lie

Polestar has done something few OEMs have attempted at scale. It has published a full lifecycle carbon assessment of its upcoming performance GT, the Polestar 5, exposing in granular detail where emissions truly reside in a modern electric vehicle. The headline figure is stark. The car’s cradle-to-gate footprint stands at 23.8 tonnes of CO2e, a number that includes everything from raw material extraction through to delivery. Yet the real significance lies beneath that total.

The overwhelming majority of emissions are not generated in factories, nor even in logistics networks, but embedded upstream in materials. Fully 60% of the vehicle’s cradle-to-gate emissions come from material production and refining, excluding the battery modules. This confirms what many in manufacturing have long suspected but struggled to quantify with precision. Decarbonisation of automotive production is less a question of plant efficiency than of material science, industrial energy systems and sourcing strategy.

The battery, often cast as the principal environmental burden of electric vehicles, accounts for a further 29% of emissions. Manufacturing and logistics combined make up just 11%, with the assembly process itself contributing less than 1%.

The implications are profound. Even a perfectly optimised factory can only marginally influence the total footprint if the materials entering it remain carbon intensive.

Aluminium emerges as the decisive battleground

Within the material category, one metal stands above all others. Aluminium alone accounts for 52% of emissions from material production, making it the single largest contributor to the vehicle’s embedded carbon. In absolute terms, aluminium contributes around 7.55 tonnes of CO2e per vehicle, dwarfing steel and iron at 2.39 tonnes and polymers at 1.96 tonnes.

This is not incidental. The Polestar 5 is an aluminium-intensive vehicle, reflecting broader industry trends towards lightweight architectures for performance and efficiency. But aluminium’s carbon intensity, particularly when produced using fossil-based electricity, makes it a critical lever for emissions reduction.

Polestar’s response is instructive. The company has specified aluminium sourced from smelters powered by renewable electricity, alongside incorporating recycled content where possible, and the effect is material. According to the carmaker, more than 14 tonnes of CO₂ per car are avoided through the use of recycled aluminium and aluminium produced with renewable energy.

For manufacturing executives, this reframes supplier engagement. It is no longer sufficient to audit quality and cost. Carbon intensity at the material level, and the energy mix behind it, becomes a central procurement criterion.

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Manufacturing’s vanishing footprint

Perhaps the most striking revelation in the report is how little direct manufacturing contributes to the total footprint. The Polestar 5 will be produced at a new plant in Chongqing operated by Geely. The facility is fully electrified and runs on 100% renewable electricity via green energy certificates.

As a result, emissions from the manufacturing process amount to just 0.08 tonnes of CO2e per vehicle. In percentage terms, that is effectively negligible. Less than 1% of the cradle-to-gate footprint is attributable to the factory itself.

This is both a success story and a strategic warning. It demonstrates that zero-carbon manufacturing is achievable at scale, at least in accounting terms. But it also highlights diminishing returns. Once plants are powered by renewable electricity, further gains become marginal compared with upstream interventions.

For an industry that has spent decades refining lean production, energy efficiency and plant optimisation, the centre of gravity is shifting. The factory is no longer the primary battlefield for emissions reduction.

Battery production shows signs of structural change

Battery modules remain a significant contributor at 6.93 tonnes of CO2e per vehicle. Yet here too, there are signs of structural improvement. The relatively lower-than-expected impact of the battery is attributed to the use of renewable electricity in cell production and in the manufacture of cathode and anode materials.

This is a critical development. Battery manufacturing has historically been one of the most carbon-intensive stages of EV production, largely due to energy-heavy processes and fossil-based electricity in key regions. By shifting to renewable electricity, suppliers can materially reduce the embedded carbon of battery systems without waiting for breakthroughs in chemistry or energy density.

However, the report also hints at the fragility of these gains. Much of the renewable energy use is enabled through certificates rather than direct physical supply, and the data itself is based on projections as production ramps up. For OEMs, this raises questions about verification, standardisation and comparability. The absence of a unified global standard for vehicle lifecycle assessment complicates benchmarking across the industry.

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A blueprint for next-generation vehicle engineering

Taken together, the findings amount to more than a sustainability report. They offer a blueprint for how automotive manufacturing must evolve.

First, design decisions are now emissions decisions. Material selection, particularly the balance between aluminium, steel and composites, has a far greater impact on lifecycle carbon than marginal gains in plant efficiency.

Second, supplier ecosystems become central to decarbonisation. OEMs must extend visibility deep into Tier 1 and beyond, interrogating not only processes but energy sources and recycling pathways.

Third, renewable electricity is necessary but not sufficient. While it can dramatically reduce emissions in manufacturing and battery production, it does little to address the embedded carbon of primary materials unless applied at the point of extraction and refining.

And finally, transparency itself is becoming a competitive differentiator. By publishing detailed lifecycle data, Polestar is not merely disclosing its footprint but shaping the terms of the debate. The broader lifecycle picture reinforces the point. Over a 200,000 km lifetime, total emissions range from 27.0 to 38.6 tonnes of CO2e depending on the electricity mix used in the driving phase.

Even here, materials remain dominant, accounting for 37% of total lifecycle emissions, ahead of both use phase and battery production. For manufacturers, the message is clear. The transition to electric vehicles does not eliminate the carbon problem. It relocates it. From the factory floor to the mine, from assembly lines to smelters, the real challenge lies in re-engineering the industrial system that underpins the modern vehicle.