Why a UK base at MIRA is so important to Polestar

Tucked down the end of one of the many internal roads of the sprawling Horiba MIRA proving ground lies a warehouse unit out of which one of the most significant automotive engineering start-up operations in the UK in many years has been growing.

Polestar opened a MIRA-based site in the Midlands in 2019 as the home of its UK R&D operations, which will soon expand to include a second facility. By the end of 2023, more than 800 engineers will be employed by Polestar across the two sites, around 250 remaining at MIRA, and they will be responsible for engineering Polestar vehicles. Powertrain, battery and software development will remain in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“If this place is the centre of the vehicle, Gothenburg is the centre of the propulsion technology for that vehicle,” said Steve Swift, director of vehicle engineering, describing the relationship between Polestar’s two R&D locations.

The MIRA site has worked on under-the-radar refinements to the Polestar 1 and Polestar 2 but its key work has been the development of the all-new bespoke chassis that will be used on the Polestar 5, and future models after that.

For Autocar Business webinars and podcasts, visit Autocar Business Insight

“We are becoming increasingly independent from Volvo,” said Pete Allen, Polestar UK R&D boss. “We are developing our own IP and DNA.”

There are currently 300 engineers on site at MIRA, a figure that is “growing rapidly”, said Allen. Indeed, there has already been a sixfold increase since it opened in 2019.

Many of those engineers have been “hand-picked people used to delivering differently”, Allen said, with recruits coming from motorsport, including Formula 1, the likes of Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren and other low-volume specialist players, and also “people from more traditional OEM backgrounds” such as Jaguar Land Rover. The result, said Allen, is the bringing together of the best practices of all these worlds to “take on the German OEMs”.

However, it wasn’t a given that the UK would be chosen for such a significant facility for the fast-growing brand. But Polestar’s decision makers saw the “relevant capability of the UK in such a small area”, according to Swift, in reference to the hotbed of automotive companies in the Midlands and its proximity to 'motorsport valley' alongside proving grounds and consultancies.

MIRA was then chosen as the site because it didn’t require “a massive investment in facilities”, given how many tools key for car development are already on site at MIRA. Swift added: “We see a long-term relationship with MIRA for prototype build and test facilities. We want to build capability in-house but not for all of it.”