Polestar

History

Polestar's roots trace to Flash Engineering, a Swedish motorsport team founded in 1996, rebranded as Polestar Racing in 2005. Volvo Cars acquired Polestar in 2015 and, together with Geely Holding, announced its repositioning as a standalone electric vehicle brand in 2017; Polestar has been listed on Nasdaq since June 2022. Majority ownership only passed to Geely-affiliated holders in 2024, when Volvo Cars distributed most of its shareholding to its own shareholders and went from 48 to about 18 percent.

EV strategy

Polestar builds premium electric cars only and puts performance and sustainability up front. Of the five models meant to be in place by 2026, four have arrived: Polestar 2, 3 and 4, plus deliveries of the Polestar 5 since the summer of 2026; the compact Polestar 7 SUV is announced for 2028. The Polestar 3 is built on Volvo's SPA2 platform, the Polestar 4 on Geely's SEA.

Good to know

• Polestar is leaving the US market: in June 2026 the Commerce Department refused the brand authorization under the Connected Vehicle Rule, so it may no longer sell model-year 2027 cars there.
• From 2020 the Polestar 2 was the brand's first fully electric model and carried it through its early years; the Polestar 1 before it was a plug-in hybrid.
• Polestar uses an 'asset-light' model and manufactures in Volvo and Geely facilities in China, the US, and South Korea.
• The brand defines itself through Scandinavian electric performance design and European engineering excellence.