New Polestar Formula 2030 Concept is a shooting brake of the future

Polestar describes itself as the “Swedish electric performance car brand” but alongside ‘performance’, its design and sustainability values are just as important and all three are very much on show with its latest creation, the Polestar Formula 2030 Concept. 

The name ‘Formula 2030’ comes from Polestar’s roadmap introduced to accelerate business growth and drive the brand toward profitability before the end of the decade. That all sounds pretty dry so to get pulses racing over the marque’s future, Polestar’s head of design, Philipp Romers, has created his first start-to-finish creation for the company. 

Romers, who joined Polestar from Audi in 2025, previously told Auto Express that the brand “needed a bold evolution not revolution of what came before”. With that in mind, the Polestar Formula 2030 Concept “is a physical embodiment of how we apply Polestar‘s core values of design, performance and sustainability to the next production cars”.

If you’re sold on the looks alone, you might be saddened to hear Polestar has no plans to put the Formula 2030 Concept into production. However, Romers pointed out that “if Polestar could only make one car, this would be it”. The manufacturer is heading in the other direction though because it’s adding more cars to its line up, all of which will be influenced by the Formula 2030’s design. 

While it blends the boundaries of shooting brake, coupe, hatchback and estate, Polestar simply says the Formula 2030 Concept is a “practical, four-door sports car”. At 4.6 metres long, it’s shorter than a BMW 3 Series and sitting just 1.35 metres tall, the Formula 2030 is a sleek looking thing – but with real presence, thanks to its long bonnet and two-metre width. The Formula Concept also sits on 22-inch, four-spoke wheels which wear the same ‘Nitrogen’ white paint as the bodywork. 

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The front of the concept showcases the latest version of Polestar’s signature ‘Dual Blade’ headlight arrangement, with the upper section mounted on the clamshell bonnet. According to Polestar, it provides the face of the next-generation Polestar 2 which is due out next year. Another feature coming for the Polestar 2 and the Polestar 7 compact SUV in 2028 is the front aero wing on the bonnet’s leading edge – something we’ve seen already on the Polestar 3. 

On the wraparound windscreen, which has hints of fellow Swedish car companies Koenigsegg and Saab to it, there’s a single vertical wiper that pays homage to Polestar’s motorsport history. There’s also a hidden LiDAR unit above, which reveals itself when the concept is utilising its autonomous driving system. 

To the rear, Polestar’s single LED light bar (something that’s become a design trait of the firm) as gone. There are now two narrow light clusters and Polestar says they give off a ‘UFO-esque’ rear. The rear window, like the front, has a wraparound design and it’s topped off by a roof-mounted spoiler, plus a huge diffuser incorporated as a bumper beneath. 

To enter the Formula 2030 you open up the pillarless doors (rear-hinged for the back doors) where you’ll find a rather innovative and slick yet quirky cabin. Up front there’s a curved instrument display mounted on the steering column to create a driver-orientated environment – helped further by a cocooning dashboard that flows into the centre console. 

That centre console is where things really get interesting. The 12.2-inch central display – which features Google built-in like Polestar’s current models – has a new interface and can rise up or fall flat against the dash. Beneath it there’s a sliding drive-mode selector and you can see each setting on the screen behind. Polestar says it created this function as a balance between physical and digital control.

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Then beneath that is a control panel with purely physical switchgear. While beautifully finished, they’re not groundbreaking in their own right, but they are entirely customisable. You can physically swap out each of the eight controls, such as the rocker switches or rotary dials to your preferred layout. Juan Pablo Bernal, Polestar’s head of interior design, said:  “With the Formula 2030 concept we're reducing the unnecessary, distilling the experience to its very essence and enhancing the elements that truly matter to set the tonality and ambition for future Polestar interiors.” 

A design detail that has become standard on Polestar models is labelling. On the exterior the Formula 2030’s name is on the lower edge of the door and the bootlid. The steering column has its own measurement labelled, and the interior door handle and the exposed rear strut are labelled, too. Swedish Gold, Polestar’s signature colour for its performance-focused models, is used on the seatbelts, Brembo brake calipers, valve caps, bonnet struts and the ‘race-inspired’ Ohlins adjustable suspension. 

Sustainability is also a crucial element of Polestar’s brand identity and with the Formula 2030 it’s showcased in a number of areas. There’s steel sourced from low-emission factories and a bio-based composite for the seat backs using flax from European fields. While it’s not offered on this concept, Polestar also posts the cradle-to-gate (measured from the extraction of raw materials up to the point it leaves the manufacturer's factory door) on its website for its production cars. 

As it’s purely a design study, the technical underpinnings of the Formula 2030 haven’t been disclosed, although Polestar told us it could fit the 100kWh battery from the Polestar 4 within the concept’s wheelbase. With a much sleeker profile we wouldn’t be surprised if the Formula 2030 would be able to return a much higher range than the latest Polestar 4 SUV’s 391-mile maximum. 

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