Polestar in the U.S.: Reinventing Itself
With three new vehicles in the works, the electric carmaker is hoping to raise awareness.
Alisa PriddleWriter
Heading into a new year, Polestar, an electric vehicle company, is closing the door on its first model to be sold in the U.S. while ushering in a new era of models to entice U.S. buyers. Polestar is the child of Volvo and Geely Holdings. It is a premium EV carmaker that continues the Volvo tradition of Swedish minimalist design and relies on its Chinese parents for vehicle platforms, electrical architectures, and manufacturing.
The Polestar 1, a plug-in hybrid sedan to bridge the gap to an all-electric lineup, had a limited run of 1,500 vehicles, starting in 2019. Production came to an end last month; final Polestar 1 deliveries will continue into the new year. North America was initially pegged to get 450 of the 1,500-car run but the U.S. ended up with closer to 600 units of the allotment.
Polestar 2 Orders Strong
The order rate for the Polestar 2, the first battery-electric car which launched last year, is running ahead of target, head of Polestar U.S. Greg Hembrough says. A strategic move to push 60 percent of the full-year advertising to the last four months of the year is paying off in consumer interest.
When the Polestar 2 launched in the U.S. last year, it was only offered in the fully loaded, long-range, dual-motor Launch Edition with a range of 249 miles from a single charge. For the 2022 model year Polestar lowered the base price of the long-range dual-motor 2022 Polestar 2 to $51,200 and added a $47,200 long-range single motor version. The long-range single motor model is more efficient, with a 270-mile range, and will arrive by the end of December. Other markets in Europe and Asia get short-range models.
Order Books for Polestar 3 Open in 2022
The brand will really open up with the addition of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 SUVs which play in the largest segments. The automaker will open the order books for the Polestar 3 in 2022 with production in late 2022 or early 2023, Hembrough says.
The Polestar 5 is the cherry on top, Hembrough says, complementing the portfolio because, while low volume, the sedan is so striking.
The Polestar 3 uses the next generation of Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture (SPA2) and will be built at the Volvo plant in Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston plant is being retooled to assemble vehicles on SPA2 which was designed to accommodate electric vehicles, including a Volvo XC90 EV. The Charleston plant will have two body shops: one for EVs, one for vehicles with combustion engines, each having a slightly different chassis. They will share paint and final trim lines.
Polestar 3 and Volvo XC90 Cousins
The Polestar 3 and Volvo XC90 may share underpinnings with the SPA2 platform, and some tech, but they are fundamentally different vehicles, says Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath.
Polestar contracts Volvo and Geely for all its manufacturing globally. "We can't build our own cars," says Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. "The beauty of the way we operate is Volvo or Geely is paid to do the contract manufacturing," he says. The Polestar 4, a compact and sportier SUV based on a Geely platform is slated to go into production in 2023 at Geely's Hangzhou Bay plant in China.
Assembly of the Polestar 3 in the U.S. will make it quicker and easier to get vehicles to customers and should help raise awareness of the Polestar brand, Hembrough says. "People still don't know what Polestar is," he says. It will take many years to build brand equity on the street. But it is paramount. The brand has planned a 33-city campaign in the U.S., offering test drives to engage customers and spread awareness.
Expanding Polestar Spaces
Polestar currently has 25 retail outlets in the U.S. it refers to as "Polestar Spaces." They have limited inventory and no service bays. Originally Polestar relied on digital orders and deliveries but after feedback that some consumers want cars on lots they can buy and drive away immediately, the automaker switched to "spaces" that can accommodate 7-10 vehicles.
The number of Polestar Spaces is expected to grow to 30 in 2022 and 50 by the end of 2023. Service is done through affiliated Volvo dealers, with complimentary pickup and delivery within 150 miles of a Polestar Space. There is also mobile service for light maintenance such as tires and brakes, Hembrough said.
Ingenlath says the company's near-term focus is on Europe and North America. Medium-term the split is expected to be 40 percent of sales in Europe with the rest split evenly between North America and Asia. Polestar is in 14 markets now and plans to expand to 30 markets by 2023.