Polestar 3 produced in South Carolina
Polestar
Polestar is an automotive brand with relatively little name recognition in the US. It only became a standalone brand a handful of years ago and to date has only offered two models here, the very low volume plug-hybrid 1 coupe and the Polestar 2 sedan. Based on its form factor, the Polestar 2 was always likely to have a more limited appeal, especially in the US where the various flavors of SUVs now have well over half the market. Thus Polestar will be celebrating now that production of its first utility vehicle, the Polestar 3 has finally kicked off at the Volvo Cars factory near Charleston, South Carolina.
Polestar 3 produced in South Carolina
Polestar
For the uninitiated, Polestar started of as a developer of tuned and racing versions of Volvos in the mid-199os in Sweden. The company was eventually acquired by Volvo as its in-house performance tuning brand. In late-2010s, Volvo and its Chinese owners at Geely decided to spin off Polestar as a stand-alone electric performance brand. The 1 was initially developed as a Volvo, before becoming a Polestar and the 2 is a sedan based on the Volvo XC40 Recharge.
The new 3 also shares Volvo roots, but the styling is now diverging into a more uniquely Polestar direction that will continue to evolve with upcoming models including the 4, 5, and 6. The 3 is based on the SPA2 architecture along with the Volvo EX90. The Polestar 3 was originally slated to debut nearly a year ago, but problems with software development at Volvo delayed both the Polestar and EX90. The EX90 kicked off production in June of this in Charleston and goes on sale in the coming weeks and now Polestar 3 has transitioned from pre-production to full series production as well.
Polestar 3
Sam Abuelsamid
Unlike the more upright, 3-row Volvo, the 3 is a two-row five seater that is both shorter and lower and has a more distinctly sporty flavor to it. The first 3s actually started rolling off the line at a Geely factory in Chengdu, China several months ago, but most of those are being sold locally and exported to Europe. Some of those were also brought into the US before the increased 100% tariff on Chinese-built EVs went into effect. Going forward, all Polestar 3s for this market will be sourced from South Carolina along with the EX90.
The launch of the Polestar 3 and the upcoming 4 will be crucial to the ongoing viability of the brand. Sales of the 2 in the US peaked at just over 1,200 in July 2023 and have been well under 1,000 per month in 2024. Finally introducing a product in a market segment that is more appealing to American consumers should provide a significant boost through the remainder of this year and into 2025. The smaller and less expensive 4 should provide a further boost. If these don’t take off here and globally, the Polestar brand may end up fading away.
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 03:12:00
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