RPM News Weekly

It seems like tough times for EVs right now, at least that’s what many in mainstream media appear to want you to think at the moment. The reality is that the EV market share is still growing, maybe not as fast as predicted, but the number of EVs on the road is steadily increasing.

Like the EV market as a whole, the premium-focused Polestar EV lineup is also expanding, and this week the brand shows off its latest EV at the 2024 New York International Auto Show – the Polestar 4, a model that has clearly set itself to rival the Tesla Model Y.

The Polestar brand has a peculiar history, starting in 1996 as an independent racing team that modified Volvos, and only becoming an official brand partner in 2009. Volvo eventually purchased Polestar in 2015 and began selling special Polestar-enhanced models until 2017. Volvo then announced that Polestar, which started out modifying gas-powered Volvos, would become an all-electric sub-brand of Volvo, a move that seemed to make no sense since Volvo was already a premium automaker with a goal toward producing all-electric vehicles.

More recently, however, Volvo announced that they no longer would be supporting the EV brand, which seemed to do wonders for their stock price but makes little difference to Polestar since Volvo’s parent company Geely immediately announced that they would be stepping in to fund the company.

To clarify things, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath stated, “We look forward to continued cooperation with Volvo Cars as well as benefiting from even greater synergies with Geely on future-oriented technologies.”

So, in essence, Polestar, a company that was owned in part by Volvo, a Geely-owned company is now being handed off to Geely, who will assume full ownership, demonstrating how the ownership of automotive brands in this day and age can be bizarrely convoluted.

But putting that aside, with this year’s event being Polestar’s first showcase at the New York Auto Show it’s particularly poignant that it comes at a time when some of the very brands they aim to take business from – namely BMW and Mercedes-Benz – don’t seem to see the value in doing auto shows.

Polestar CEO Ingenlath commented, “We are proud to present the extension of our model range at the NYIAS. 2024 will be an outstanding year for our young brand as we show the full strength and potential of Polestar. Both our SUVs target one of the fastest growing segments in the industry, positioning the brand for strong volume growth and margin progression from the second half of the year.”

For Polestar this is the beginning of a product offensive that starts with the ramp-up of the Polestar 4 and will eventually lead to the introduction of the 4-door, all-electric Polestar 5 GT car and the Polestar 6 Roadster.