SINO-Swedish electric performance car brand Polestar is teaming up with Hot Wheels, the popular maker of model cars, to launch its 2024 Design Contest.

Hot Wheels is owned by Mattel, one of the biggest global toy manufacturers responsible over decades for the production of multiple millions of the iconic, collectable tiny models and car race games.

Polestar has issued a brief for the contest inviting designers “to surprise and thrill the judges with submissions propelled by the imagination of their youth”. 

Entrants are required to weave Polestar’s design DNA into their vision of the ultimate Hot Wheels collectible that according to Polestar “promises the most extreme edition of the Polestar Design Contest to date”.

Adding to the competitive element, the winning design is destined to become part of Hot Wheels’ offering available for purchase across the globe as the first Hot Wheels x Polestar vehicle to be produced. The collaboration is part of a wider partnership with Polestar production models.

According to the rules, entrants are encouraged to be as imaginative as possible and push the boundaries of performance and design of the vehicle in their final submission. 

The submission must be such that Mattel can produce a 1:64 Hot Wheels die-cast vehicle. Visuals showing its interior design and immediate surroundings are to be included as part of the submission.

“Dreams have the power to inspire and transport us beyond what we thought possible. This is a chance for all participating designers to really push that Polestar envelope and let their imagination run riot,” says Maximilian Missoni, Polestar’s head of design.

Entrants shortlisted ahead of final selection – by both Polestar and Hot Wheels design professionals – will be coached one-on-one by Polestar’s design team to refine their submitted designs towards final selection.

The Polestar Design Contest was launched in 2020 to challenge aspiring designers, both professionals and students, to create “exciting” visions in line with the Polestar brand and design.

Since the first contest, the competition has highlighted top talent around the world, with many of the students going on to work for the Polestar Design team or in the wider professional design industry.

 “Both Polestar and Hot Wheels dedicate time, energy and skill to ensure design is at the core of our vehicles,” said Ted Wu, VP and global head of vehicle design, Mattel.

“The Hot Wheels design team has always challenged the conventional approach and the Polestar Design Contest allows the design community to showcase their skills and wow us with something we have never seen before, and we cannot wait to see the submissions,” he said.

Since its inception, the Polestar Design Contest has featured a variety of vehicles and cutting edge concepts and draws entries from students and professional designers across the globe.

Interesting designs have included a car which tackles local pollution with on-board and externally visible air filters, an electric-and-helium airship, prosthetic springboard blades to aid walking, and KOJA, the micro-space tree house by renowned Finnish designer Kristian Talvitie. 

In 2023, Polestar debuted the Synergy concept car, winner of that contest’s Performance theme, during the IAA in Munich, followed by Mattel’s Hot Wheels Legends Tour stop in El Segundo, California. 

Polestar says in a statement: “The single-seat electric supercar is as much a story of collaboration as it is design, with two exterior and one interior design winners selected from over 600 initial entries, who then spent six months working together with the Polestar Design team to turn three distinct dreams into one cohesive reality.

Juan Pablo Bernal, interior design manager at Polestar and  founder of the Polestar Design Contest as well as curator of the @polestardesigncommunity Instagram page, commented: “I believe this year’s Hot Wheels collaboration will push the design community to work outside of their traditional comfort zones by balancing the minimalist Polestar brand essence with the extreme Hot Wheels aesthetic.

“But while we’re expecting some of the most extreme submissions yet, we don’t expect to be any less inspired by the quality, quantity and diversity of entries we receive.

The Polestar Design Contest opens for entries on March 5, 2024 with a submission deadline on April 16.  

Polestar plans to reveal the winner of the contest in Q4 2024.