Polestar 7 to fight in the compact premium SUV segment

Chinese firm Polestar wants to grow sales by one-third in the next 36 months. It believes the new model 7 will contribute strongly to this. The 7 will be the firm’s first model produced in Europe. Manufacture will probably take place in a Geely plant currently under construction in Slovakia.

The forthcoming 7 will go on sale in 2027 and effectively replaces the Polestar 2 liftback (below). However, it will be more recognisably SUV in shape. 

It will compete in the “biggest and fastest growing” market segment for electric cars and is key to Polestar’s growth. Rivals include iX1, Ioniq 5 and Model Y.

Its head of design, Philipp Römers, said that the Polestar 7 will create its own styling buzz. He believes it will be “everything our customers expect from us, both in terms of design and performance”.

Every Polestar has a unique selling point but what exactly the 7’s USP will be is currently unclear.

Following Thomas Ingenlath’s resignation last year as Polestar CEO, the new head, Michael Lochscheller, is making “significant changes” to improve the firm’s operations and financial performance.

Lochscheller said that Polestar has “the right cars” and the focus is now on boosting sales and distribution, and on cost reduction.

Sales of the new 3 and 4 EVs are slowly growing and Polestar will release a four-seater Taycan-rivalling 5 GT this year. This will be the firm’s first model to debut an 800v architecture and will ride on a bonded aluminium platform. It will be followed by the 6, a limited-run 2+2 roadster.

Polestar will eventually move all of its models onto a single vehicle architecture, probably the SEA platform, to reduce “complexity, costs and investments”.

Polestar is accelerating its retail expansion. It wants to increase outlets (Spaces) by 75 per cent in 2025, expanding to 130 locations in Europe and 57 in North America. It will also establish sales outlets in France, once it ends a dispute with Citroen over logo design. Lochscheller said that Polestar’s emphasis will also shift more towards active selling.

More manufacturing bases should help with expansion. Initially it was a China-only scenario but Polestar now builds the 3 in the US and also has production facilities in South Korea. 

Being an EV maker only, Polestar will also sell CO2 credits to other manufacturers that are struggling to hit their European Union emissions targets. Lochscheller believes that avenue will be worth hundreds of millions in revenue.

Finally, Polestar will challenge Tesla with a home energy solution dubbed Polestar Energy. It will make home charging “smarter, more efficient, and cheaper”. Polestar says it can reduce home charging costs by up to 30 per cent using its bespoke app.