Polestar sets sights on doubling global presence

Swedish electric performance brand Polestar says it will have doubled its global presence by the end of this year – expanding from just nine markets to 18, including Australia.

On top of this, the Volvo off-shoot plans to increase its retail offering two-fold in the same timeframe by stepping up from its current ‘Polestar Spaces’ approach, where its products are represented in city-centres, to its new ‘Polestar Destinations’ concept which also makes it easier for potential buyers to view and collect cars out-of-town.

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The boost to its retail presence means the carmaker will, by year’s end, have around 100 physical sites around the world – including some temporary pop-ups. There will also be sixty test drive locations and more customer handover centres to meet demand for the Polestar 2, as well as an ambition to bump up its 650 service points to 780.

“We are expanding both within markets in which we already have a presence and into new markets extremely rapidly. As a brand that has only been fully operational for just over 12 months, this sort of footprint is unprecedented,” said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO.

“We aim to expand at a similar rate in terms of new markets in 2022 as well.”

The news of the marque's expansion follows the announcement last week of the company's new management line-up for Australia, with execs coming on board from parent company Volvo, as well as Nissan and from outside the automotive industry.

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Despite branching off from Volvo in 2017, Polestar still utilises many of the manufacturing capabilities of the larger manufacturer – though the former says it has no further plans to up its shares in the latter, having recently increased its stake back up to almost 50 per cent.

Polestar became a dedicated EV brand in 2019 after the release of the Polestar 2.

The Polestar 2 electric vehicle – a coupe-like five-door liftback with a raised SUV stance – will make its Australian debut just before this year is out. The Polestar 1 never made it to our shores.

Polestar’s Australian launch will come roughly one year after it launched in the US, where customer deliveries of the Polestar 2 began in December 2020 – a few months later than intended, thanks to Covid-19.

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“Polestar sees considerable potential in the Australian market, which is why it will be one of the first markets to launch as part of the company’s Asia Pacific expansion,” said Polestar Australia boss Samantha Johnson at an event in May.

The Polestar 3, which is based on Volvo’s next generation electric architecture, will be built at the parent company’s plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina next year, and by mid-decade it expects to be producing models in Europe too.

It marks the first time since the acquisition of Polestar by Geely that the specialist vehicles will be made outside of China – the Polestar 1 and 2 being assembled at factories in the country since 2017.

A Precept concept vehicle, revealed in February 2020, has also been confirmed for future production, with a new video series offering fans a look behind the scenes at how it is conceived and crafted.