Polestar

About Polestar

Although the term Polestar is well-known to die-hard Volvo enthusiasts, the contemporary Polestar is not what it once was.

Like Alpina for BMW or AMG for Mercedes-Benz, Polestar was a privately owned Swedish motorsport shop specializing in modifying Volvos. It was established in 1996. Versions of the C30 Coupe, S60 Sedan, and V60 Wagon were all official Polestar goods you could purchase from the Volvo dealer; all three had software modifications that improved performance. Volvo acquired Polestar in 2015, similar to how Mercedes-Benz acquired AMG in 1999.

A standalone electric car brand was launched in 2017 by Volvo Cars and its corporate owner, China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding, who recognized an electric future and prioritized performance, sustainability, technology, and modern-minimalist appearance. This new business would adopt the Polestar moniker.

Late in 2019, Polestar unveiled its debut product, the luxurious, hand-built Polestar 1 Coupe, a robust plug-in hybrid. 2021 a second, more widely used car, the Polestar 2, was introduced. The Polestar 2 is an all-electric vehicle with a 402-horsepower dual-motor system and will have a single-motor variant in 2022.

Both of these cars are the result of ideas created as explorations of the style elements used by the parent carmaker and were made under the guidance of Thomas Ingenlath, the current CEO of Polestar and previous head of design at Volvo. The earliest Polestars extensively used Volvo components as part of a corporate initiative to avoid having to redo existing things and function admirably to save costs.

Polestar, however, is not just another moniker for Volvo. Although the firm is still established in Sweden, its automobiles are manufactured in China. The all-electric Polestar 3, produced in South Carolina, will be the automaker’s first SUV and go on sale in 2022. This will help Polestar lessen the financial burden of selling cars manufactured in China, subject to a 27.5% import duty.

Polestar is now available in 13 European, North America, Asia, and Australia countries. Following Tesla’s example, the American sales organization uses standalone showrooms (“Spaces” in Polestar parlance) and digital ordering. In the US, there are now 23 showrooms—all located at dealerships that also sell Volvos—with 30 expected to open by the end of 2021 and 35 by the end of 2022.

Polestar anticipates that the majority of its vehicles will be specially ordered. Still, for customers who cannot wait, each dealership maintains an inventory of 5 to 10 cars in various colors and equipment levels. Polestar-trained professionals do the servicing, with free pickup and delivery for vehicles within 150 miles of a dealership and in-home service for farther away cars.