Polestar 1 Position

TAKING ON TESLA WILL BE TOUGH, BUT THIS NEW CHALLENGER ISN’T YOUR AVERAGE STARTUP

- Nelson Ireson

TACKLING THE TESLA empire head-on might seem a bit less daunting than it once did given the Model 3’s much-publicized production issues, but don’t expect those hiccups to last. You better have your AC/DC game wired up tight if you expect to make a significant dent in the market share of the global leader in all-electric-powered transportation.

Polestar is yet another emerging brand with grand designs on becoming a bona fide Tesla challenger, although unlike some of the other startups we’ve seen run into trouble and delays, it might be able to make a go of it given who’s behind it. The new entity is born from the nexus of Volvo’s engineering prowess and the tremendous vision (and bank account) of Volvo Cars owner and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group chairman Li Shufu. You might remember Polestar as the Swedish automaker’s in-house performance arm. While you’ll still be able to get your Polestar-tuned Volvos, the Chinese-based brand will now stand on its own and produce cars not directly based on production Volvos.

Due by mid-2019, Polestar’s first offering—the Polestar 1— isn’t an all-electric car at all but rather a high-performance plug-in hybrid coupe with up to 93 miles of range in full electric mode. Two more cars are coming right behind it, however, that will be EV only and have been explicitly designed to take on the Model 3 and the expected Model Y compact crossover.

Polestar aims to one-up Tesla with a completely dealer free experience—a business model that might face even more of a challenge in the U.S. than Tesla’s wholly owned dealer model. The entire Polestar process is designed to be digital from end to end. A customer need never leave the house, let alone set foot in a Polestar dealership, to test drive, subscribe, and get exactly the car they want delivered to their door.