Hot Wheels to immortalise winning design

Electric vehicle maker Polestar has announced the winner of its 2024 Design Contest.

This year’s contest, held in collaboration with Hot Wheels, invited contestants to submit designs inspired by its renowned 1:64 scale and Polestar’s distinctive design language.

Shashank Shekhar, a professional designer from India, took out the contest with his rugged off-roader, ‘Polestar TRX’.

The design becomes the first Polestar to be included in Hot Wheels toy car series, with the die-cast collectable available for consumers in the summer of 2025.

The concept, with its exaggerated proportions and sleek surfaces, presents a bold interpretation of Polestar’s normally subtle design philosophy.

“I’m thrilled to win. This will be the first design in my career to be produced, so it’s a big deal for me,” Shekhar said.

“I never thought that someday, something I have created would end up as a Hot Wheels car.

“It has been a great journey, and I’ve had an amazing time so far.

“Something like this gives you a lot of confidence as a young designer.”

Italy’s Powei Chen was awarded the runner-up prize for his colourful ‘Cyber Shaker’, which nods to both past and present with its eye-catching cyberpunk design.

Roman Moor’s classic Le Mans submission from Germany received an honourable mention for his ‘Polestar Track Toy’ concept, which impressed the four-judge panel that included representatives from Polestar and Mattel.

Now in its fourth edition, the Polestar Design Contest is an exciting opportunity for both professional and student designers to showcase their visions of automotive 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.

This year’s unique partnership with Hot Wheels encouraged participants to push their creativity even further, resulting in some of the most exciting concepts to date.

“We were looking for innovative ideas with this theme, and the submissions definitely exceeded our expectations,” Polestar’s Juan-Pablo Bernal said.

“We saw some of the most daring designs to date. I can’t wait to see what the ‘Polestar TRX’ collectible will look like in real life.”

The 2024 contest attracted more than 1200 participants from around the globe, making it one of the largest to date.

Judges were instructed to seek out designs that reflected the playfulness and vibrancy of the Hot Wheels brand while still incorporating elements of Polestar’s signature minimalist design aesthetic.