Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller has announced that his brand will be taking on the world’s best-selling car, the Tesla Model Y, with a new model that’s expected to go on sale by the end of the decade. To compete head-on with the Model Y, the Polestar 7 would have to come with a starting price at today’s prices in the mid £40,000s.
The new Polestar 7 is described by Lohscheller as a ‘compact SUV’. “We will enter the compact SUV segment, the biggest and fastest-growing segment in the world, and we will obviously make sure it comes with all the Polestar DNA,” said Lohscheller.
Work hasn’t begun on the design of the new model yet, with new Polestar design boss Philipp Römers and his team set to start work soon with a clear idea of what will be needed.
“This will be a very, very progressive compact SUV – of course very performance oriented. And when I talk about progressiveness, every Polestar has a USP and we will make sure that also on the Polestar 7 we’ll have a strong USP. I’m really looking forward to working on this project with the team within the next month,” said Römers.
With Polestar’s models for the UK manufactured in China, home of Polestar owners Geely, Lohscheller is looking at increasingly localised production to reduce the impact of tariffs and to boost Polestar’s already strong sustainability credentials.
“I think it’s fair to say we have a very intelligent manufacturing strategy. We manufacture locally for the local markets,” said Lohscheller. “We produce in Charleston for the North American market. We also produce in Korea and in China, but Polestar 7 will be produced in Europe.”
Lohscheller has also announced a new platform strategy that will probably apply to the Polestar 7 and most likely fit in with a strategy for other Geely brands such as Volvo, Lotus and Lynk & Co, as well as other Geely models in China.
Currently, the Polestar 2 uses technology carried over from Volvo, the Polestar 3 shares its platform architecture with the new Volvo EX90, too, while the Polestar 4 uses a Geely-designed platform.
The range-topping Polestar 5 sports saloon, which is set to rival the Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan, is expected to be launched later this year and uses an advanced bonded aluminium platform with 800-Volt technology, all developed at Polestar’s UK research and development base in Warwickshire in the UK.
The Polestar 6, an open-top two-door model, will follow at a later date and use the same platform. However, although both cars have been developed in the UK, they will be built in China.
There’s no word yet on where the Polestar 7 might be built, but one of Volvo’s factories in either Sweden or Belgium could be a possibility, as could Geely’s new factory in Slovakia.
With the Polestar 3 and 4 just going on sale in the UK alongside the ageing Polestar 2, adding another mass market model like the Polestar 7 is crucial to the company’s growth targets of “between 30 and 35 per cent”, according to Lohscheller, and towards profitability for the eight-year old company.
