No ute for Polestar, seemingly ever

Polestar Australia boss Scott Maynard has categorically ruled out the possibility of a Polestar-branded ute, as well as a more adventurous SUV.

Speaking to carsales this week, the managing director said the brand wouldn’t be deviating from its luxury-performance niche any time soon, irrespective of obvious local demand and global trends.

“Polestar’s not a brand that would entertain a ute or a dual-cab, or a light commercial at this stage,” he said, with the same true of a pumped-up all-terrain-themed SUV model.

“There’s nothing in the wings that points in that direction.

“Polestar’s made its reputation on building cars that are so carefully designed and occupy a really specific space in the market, and to then start to dilute that into the world of light commercials is not a direction that the brand seeks to take.”

While this stance may seem inherently obvious to some, it’s likely quite disappointing for those longing a modern-day successor for the performance-focused utes produced on mass by Holden, Ford, HSV and FPV.

Polestar, with its proud focus on luxury-performance, would have been a prime candidate to muscle in on the once booming niche and make it its own, underscoring its unique brand identity and widening its local customer base in the process.

The catch is that Australia was and still is the only true haven for such vehicles; the rest of the world (and most of Australia these days) wants ladder-frame dual-cabs that can carry and load and a family with equal aplomb.

Genuinely capable electric workhorses are still a work in progress however, but that hasn’t stopped brands of all metrics and sizes (Ford, Ram, Rivian, Chevrolet, LDV, Isuzu, Geely etc) having an early crack and seeing what’s what.

Polestar could theoretically leverage the Riddara RD6 if it wanted to, but odds are the Geely-sourced lifestyle ute wouldn’t live up to the Swedish-Chinese brand’s performance, dynamic or quality standards.

Committed to Polestar’s electric luxury-performance identity, Maynard was predictably opposed to the potential axing of the EV Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption and instead called for a review of how the tax applies to light commercials.

“We’re watching carefully as the Government now considers … whether it would change the current exemption that EVs enjoy under the FBT, and I’m frankly concerned that it would even be entertained,” he said.

“It would make far more sense to instead review how FBT is applied to light commercial vehicles – when we see now that three of the five top-selling cars for the whole first half of the year were utes, and primarily the dual-cab derivatives of those utes, we have to consider that we’re not just selling those vehicles as tools of trade.

“It’s pretty obvious that sort of tax advantage is now being loopholed to allow people to buy those cars for what would predominantly be considered private use.”

He went on to reference the emergence and evolution of the halo ute – Ranger Raptor, Navara Warrior, D-Max Blade etc – and how they’re pricier and better-equipped than a tradesperson would actually need.

Current legislation dictates a dual-cab ute is eligible for an FBT exemption if it’s designed to either “carry a load of one tonne or more” or “carry a load of less than one tonne but is not designed for the principal purpose of carrying passengers”.

“We would prefer to call on government to consider how they tax electric vehicles, and if they were looking to scrimp and save … you’d do it in the light commercial arena,” Maynard said.

Digital images generated by AI

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