Graeme Lambert, Global Head of Product Communications, and the new Polestar 5

Polestar

Graeme Lambert is the Global Head of Product Communications for Polestar, the premium electric car brand that sprang from Volvo in 2017. With its newest model, the Polestar 5 premium sedan, about to enter showrooms in Europe and the U.S., Graeme wanted to introduce the Polestar 5 to the world in a way that highlighted the car’s advanced features, performance capabilities, and its real-world functionality as a luxury grand tourer. Graeme’s solution? The “Polestar 5 Sweden to the Sahara Grand Tour”, a 4,000-mile drive from Polestar’s headquarters in Gothernburg to the Sahara desert in Morrocco.

In the realm of new vehicle introductions, this one is a bit unorthadox, and we wanted to understand the thinking behind the Polestar 5 Grand Tour. Thankfully, we had an opportunity to ask Graeme Lambert what inspired him to drive a Polestar 5 across nine territories in five weeks.

Karl Brauer: Please give us some background on what led you to your current role at Polestar?

Graeme Lambert: I studied to be a car designer. There’s a clear link there with Polestar being such a design-driven brand. I ended up pivoting, doing a master's in specialist journalism, and going into automotive journalism. I spent 10 years as an automotive journalist.

That long path led me to Polestar in 2019. I started as Head of PR for the UK when we launched there. Since then, I’ve had a number of roles, including launching the brand in new markets in 2022. Then, returning to my design roots, I became responsible for Design PR from a global perspective. I later added what was essentially the R&D and engineering team. I used to say I worked for the two coolest groups of people in the business: the people that made the cars look the way they do, and the people that made the cars drive the way they do.

Graeme Lambert: The Polestar 5 is designed as a grand tourer. What does a grand tourer mean? It's about a car that can travel long distances, potentially at speed, with ease, and really be fun doing it. It's a fun car to drive. That was the concept.

For the Grand Tour, we wanted to do something that wasn’t a traditional vehicle launch. It had to be an epic adventure or expedition-type drive. That is why we don’t move in circles; we move from point A to B to C, all the way down to Z. Point A being Gothenburg, Sweden, where our HQ is, and Point Z being Ouarzazate, Morocco, just into the Sahara. Hence the title of the drive: Sweden to the Sahara.

Karl Brauer: What do you consider to be the highlight of the Polestar 5 Grand Tour?

Graeme Lambert: It’s a long trip for me and there have been so many highlights. People often ask, "What was your favorite hotel?" or "What was your favorite city?" Actually, that's very difficult to answer.

One of my favorite things has been the concept we have for inviting the media. It's not a traditional rotation where US media comes for one wave and UK media comes for another. We mix the media up. Of the 12 media places, they are mostly made up of 12 different nations. We are throwing these people together who maybe don't spend time together normally. It's a melting pot, and seeing the interactions between the different media—and frankly, some friendships being struck up on this event—has probably been the highlight.

Karl Brauer: You’ve set a pretty high bar for launching a new electric car. How do you top a grand tour of that distance for a brand like Polestar?

Graeme Lambert: What has become clear is that the media really appreciate this expedition-style format. They’re driving different roads and not just doing a circle.

Also, having started in Sweden—which in April could still potentially be quite cold and wet—and ending essentially in the dry desert, we have a rich variety of assets all the way through for both internal use and the media. When the media presents their content back in their respective markets, every story is unique, both in terms of the visuals and what they experience, with just the one constant thread: the Polestar 5.

Karl Brauer: A roaming road trip versus the typical driving in circles is certainly a very different approach.

Graeme Lambert: Fundamentally, I’m a car guy at heart, so I also enjoy a road trip with friends. For me, this was just something I wanted to do. I thought it was a cool experience for everyone involved.

I also think there is sometimes a myth that electric vehicles are a barrier to having fun and driving long distances. That really was the purpose of this: to prove that our grand tourer is fun to drive, thanks to the specialist engineering that sits below it, but also that it is easy. The charging infrastructure here in Europe is pretty strong, so it was perfectly achievable. Hopefully, it might bust some of those myths.

Karl Brauer: That’s an honorable goal, proving an electric car you can travel across multiple continents.

Karl Brauer: Congratulations on your success. It sounds like a fun journey—not just the Grand Tour, but your background that led you here.

Graeme Lambert: Thanks, Karl.