The Car That Made Polestar Is Retiring, And Its Successor Must Deliver

Polestar’s growth from Volvo performance arm to standalone EV brand hasn’t always been smooth, particularly recently: it has burned through cash, is dealing with a sales slump in China and, due to its Chinese ownership, its cars have been barred from sale in the US.

But in just nine years it has still achieved remarkable growth and, in a crowded market, established a strong and easily identifiable brand - largely thanks to the seminal Polestar 2, which has bowed out of production after six years.

This fastback has been a brand-builder in every sense: in fact, the brand was actually shaped to match the car. The early plans for Polestar were as a more premium Aston Martin rival but, when offered the chance to turn the sleek Volvo 40.2 concept into its first production car, the management team staged a major pivot.

The 40.2’s fastback bodystyle suggested a more mainstream premium performance brand, an electric-powered, Scandi-cool alternative to Porsche. Polestar bosses fully committed to the direction, and the sales success of the 2 quickly proved the market opportunity.

It helps that, at launch, the 2 felt special. It was one of the first cars to really offer a fresh, cool and credible alternative to the Tesla Model 3, while its decent dynamics and strong engineering gave it performance credibility. It may have been all stripped-back and minimalistic, but you noticed it on the road, and it was hard not to be drawn to it.

While it felt like a fresh take, you can still spot the Volvo roots of the 2, especially on early pre-facelift cars. But crucially, it still managed to feel like the first product from a new brand, rather than a Volvo spin-off. And the Tesla-rivalling credibility it garnered helped Polestar with the early production issues with the 3 and 4 crossovers as it expanded its line-up. 

If anything, the 2 set the bar unforgivingly high for those models, and – with the exception of the low-volume 5 GT – it does a better job than its successors in realising Polestar’s vision of Scandinavian performance. 

It’s the embodiment of what Polestar stands for at its best, and as the brand attempts to regroup and rebuild with a greater focus on delivering sales, its successor will have a vital role to play.

Models such as the new 4 SUV and upcoming 7 crossover will likely be the key to growing volumes. We live in the age of the SUV, after all. But it's vital that the next-generation 2 maintains the cutting-edge cool, dynamic sheen and sheer understated desirability of the original.

The 2 isn’t just the car that built Polestar, it’s the heart of the brand – and if its successor can capture the values of the original, it will set Polestar up well for the future.