Back in 2021 Polestar announced its ‘Polestar 0 Project’, designed to create the first truly ‘climate neutral’ car by 2030. Tailpipe emissions aside, all cars have a colossal carbon footprint based on the energy used to create them from people travelling to the earliest board meetings, right through production, the use stage in the hands of owners and finally, the end of life.
It’s a bold plan not least because of the timescale it’s given itself but Polestar has lined up an impressive list of partners to help out and one of those is the still fledgling electric scooter manufacturer, Stilride.
Based in what it calls a “semi-secret lair” near Stockholm, Stilride was founded in 2019 by Jonas Nyvang and Tue Beijer with the aim of building elecro-mobility “devices” using a revolutionary method of sheet metal fabrication.
Stilfold, is a folding process the company describes as “industrial origami” and as such, reduces the needs for fixings and in particular welding which consumes a considerable amount of energy and produces CO2 emissions.
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We caught up with CEO, Jonas Nyvang to find out more about what the company calls this group of “experienced entrepreneurs, misfits and robots from the automotive, electronics and fashion industries.” After all, for its expertise to be sought by a company the size Polestar, there must be something pretty special going on.
Scandinavia is famous for its design from glass, to jewellery to cars and everything about Stilride is a breath of fresh air. Hyvang and Beijer are old friends, united in their youth by the love of the Mod culture.
“I always loved scooter culture and the Mod scene,” recalls Nyvang. “Tue was into car design and he was always drawing his dream scooters. We would be sitting in a bar and he would sit there sketching scooters on knapkins to impress people,” he grins.
Both men completed their studies in London, Beijer at the Royal College of Art and Nyvang, taking an MA in design futures at Goldsmith College. I’m “more of a business person,” says Nyvang, who went on to become marketing director of Bjorn Borg Sportswear.
High level stuff then? “Yes, high level,” Nyvang laughs, “but low level can be more fun.” Beijer’s love of scooters endured too. “Years ago Tue showed me a folded bike with a simple, folded, steel chassis made from paper. It excited me as a new way of manufacturing and we still have it.”