Polestar 2 suspension, BST edition 270: Innovating automotive performance with pioneering springs

After the suspension spring design was agreed and development milestones met, the Polestar BST Edition 270 test car was taken to Spain for high-speed testing. The testing revealed that the suspension setup was slightly too stiff.

Rydholm explains: “When you do a project like this, in your heart you need it to be perfect.” The drive showed it wasn’t perfect. As Joakim freely admits, he had to make one of the most difficult decisions in his life. The new Polestar BST edition 270 suspension spring was ready at Lesjöfors, but the test drive had shown that the spring needed adjustment. Rydholm says: “Here I was, knowing that I had given Lesjöfors an almost impossible deadline which they had met, to then make a call from Spain explaining that the springs needed to be modified once again. The ride height and stiffness needed to be adjusted. Incredibly, Olof and his team understood everything across our ride heights and spring stiffness, designing a new suspension spring and manufacturing to the new requirements, shipping it out to Spain the next day. It has to be said, when you call from the test track and ask the springs to be 5% softer and they come the next day – that’s customer service.”

With the adjusted springs installed, Joakim completed an intensive week-long validation drive, from +20 °C at Barcelona’s proving ground to –25 °C in Northern Sweden. The route covered dry asphalt, heavy rain, ice, and snow, validating the suspension system’s performance across extreme temperatures and varied road conditions.

To ensure the quality of the project, Polestar fully respected the consultative development process and the time required at Lesjöfors. All associated costs were covered, allowing dedicated machinery capacity to be allocated exclusively to Polestar’s manufacturing requirements. This open-book approach, with full transparency and shared performance criteria, enabled Lesjöfors to meet a demanding production timeline. As Rydholm says, “Without Lesjöfors it would not be possible to create a car in this lead time.”

Jonsson confirms: “We have a perfect partnership with Polestar, working together as closely as we do means we can feel the results together – and makes calls like Joakim’s, when he needs a last-minute change, the easier to make! We want the right results for our customers and will do everything in our power to make that happen.”

"Everyone played their part in the development and delivery of the suspension spring for the Polestar BST edition 270. From the design department to the material scientists to the operators on the coilers to the paint shop, we all worked together and all learned together which has helped everyone raise their own knowledge, empowered the team and delivered a huge amount of pride.”

In recognition of this collaboration, Polestar brought the BST Edition 270 production vehicle to the Lesjöfors team and invited them to an exclusive test drive. Experiencing the final result first-hand reinforced the impact that precision, custom-engineered design can have in high-performance automotive applications.