Polestar, the nearest thing that Europe has to an electric premium car start-up such as Tesla, is to increase investment in its British operations.
The zero-emission car spin-out from Volvo that has been bankrolled by Geely, the Chinese automotive group, is to increase its research and development division near Coventry in the West Midlands from 280 engineers to 500 as it strives to make its car’s chassis as lightweight as possible to compensate for the heavy weight of the car’s batteries.
Polestar’s R&D facility is based at Ansty, where Geely manufactures the LEVC hybrid black cabs for the London taxi market. Geely also owns Lotus, the British sports car manufacturer, which is converting itself to an all-electric future.
The engineers at Ansty, many of
