Tesla rival Polestar unveils big plans for electric vehicle era

It was a big day for Polestar in New York City today at the company’s investor day, where it unveiled a number of new initiatives.

First and foremost, the company unveiled its 3-year business plan, in which the pure-play electric-vehicle (EV) maker is going to have 5 current and future models out in the global market by 2024. The exclusive Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid and Polestar 2 EV are already out, but Polestar also confirmed the Precept concept will now be called the Polestar 5, a “luxury sport GT 4 door,” or sedan, as they are calling it. Polestar debuted the Polestar 5 in the flesh here at the NYC event.

Along with the Polestar 5 came a bigger surprise — the release of a teaser image of the Polestar 3, which will be a “luxury aero SUV” that will play in the highly competitive midsize EV SUV space, where the Tesla Model Y (TSLA) and upcoming Fisker Ocean (I)) will be fighting for market share.

Polestar 3 EV SUV (Courtesy: Polestar)
Polestar 3 EV SUV (Courtesy: Polestar)

Another key feature of the Polestar 3 is that it will be built in America, whereas the other Polestar models will be built in China (Polestar’s parent is China’s Geely).

“We will build in America for Americans,” Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO said. “Polestar 3 is planned to be launched in 2022 as a premium electric performance SUV that will define the look of SUVs in the electric age. It will also be the first Polestar vehicle to be built in America.”

Volvo (Polestar’s former parent and also owned by Geely) has an existing plant in South Carolina, and it seems likely Polestar will build the Polestar 3 there as well. This is all part of the “asset-light” business model that Polestar is employing to build cars at existing plants owned by Volvo and Geely (0175.HK) in China.

Polestar is aiming to increase its “operating leverage,” meaning it will actually be more profitable by increasing its volume, something that is typically hard to do.

Polestar also announced it officially signed its agreement with the Gores Guggenheim SPAC (GGPI), led by billionaire Alec Gores, with the deal expected to close in the first half of 2022. Polestar also said it will be operating in 30 markets by 2023 and is projecting sales to hit 290,000 vehicles by the end of 2025.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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