Polestar 2 to launch in November

Polestar will plug into Australia in November with its first showroom contender, the Polestar 2.

Launch details of the high-performance electric car, pitched as a rival to the Tesla Model 3, come as Polestar Australia begins the build-up to the first customer deliveries in February 2022.

“Market launch is expected in November,” the managing director of Polestar Australia, Samantha Johnson, revealed to carsales today.

Johnson is still not talking about pricing or specifications for the 2022 Polestar 2, instead concentrating on the positioning of Polestar as Australia leads the global rollout of a series of experiential events for journalists, influencers and its technical partners.

The Future Talk program will be rolled out across more than a dozen countries and focuses on design and technology, not the specific details of the Polestar 2.

“Polestar is committed to supporting Australians on their journey to EV ownership in the months and years to come,” said Johnson.

“Polestar is an all-electric performance car brand determined to improve the society we live in. Design is at its core and, combined with a focus on the development and application of new technology, Polestar aims to lead toward truly sustainable mobility.

“At the heart of our DNA is sustainability. It’s a word used quite liberally in our industry, but for Polestar the difference is our relentless pursuit of climate neutrality.”

Johnson also confirmed more of the earlier news on Polestar in Australia, including its focus on an online sales model, a small group of ‘experiential centres’ for test drives and personal interaction, and a fixed-price ‘agency model’ similar to the ones being adopted by Mercedes-Benz and Honda in Australia.

Johnson was today making her first public appearance as the head of the four-person team that will operate Polestar Australia from an office close to Volvo Car Australia in Sydney, since transferring from her previous position as director of business control, financial services and digital transformation at Volvo.

Despite the obvious Volvo connections, Polestar maintains that it is an independent business division within the Chinese automotive empire of Geely.

Although its history is linked to the previous Polestar business, which had its roots in motorsport and created the high-performance version of the Volvo S60 sedan, the only current connection is through the engineering expertise and agility that was gained through a sub-brand that operated much like Holden Special Vehicles.

“Volvo Cars and Geely saw the opportunity to transform Polestar into the standalone brand it is today, creating a new, bespoke brand that could deliver its own portfolio of electric vehicles,” she said.

Even so, the heart of the Polestar 2 is the mechanical platform of the Volvo XC40 EV, which means Polestar is tapping into the technical and safety systems already developed by Volvo before adding the 300kW/660Nm all-wheel drive powertrain package that also promises 470km between charges.

Johnson said that the Future Talk program is key to Polestar’s rollout and is intended to “raise sustainability and electrification awareness and engagement in a creative way”.

“Polestar finds inspiration through collaboration: working with people, brands and ideas that push boundaries and drive innovation through unconventional thinking,” she said.