We speak to Polestar UK boss Jonathan Goodman about how the brand will develop here following strong sales results
Polestar is a brand with big targets. By the end of 2025 it’s aiming to sell 290,000 cars globally – and the brand’s sales performance for the first half of this year shows it’s on the way.
British sales will play a big part in its future, according to Polestar UK boss, Jonathan Goodman. The Swedish brand shifted 21,200 cars globally in the first six months of the year, with 2,828 registrations in the UK to the end of June 2022, according to data from The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
“We’re over 10 per cent of the total global mix,” Goodman told Auto Express. “We’re up 72 per cent year-on-year in a BEV market that’s up just over 50 [per cent]. So it’s going very strong. The order take is very good, we’re in a very strong position in the UK. I think really it’s just getting the cars through.”
Polestar doesn’t break its orders down by market, but based on a global order bank of 50,000 since the start of 2022 and the ratio above, this could mean around 6,500 cars heading for the UK.
This is despite a “hiatus in production” due to further lockdowns in China, “although this is now over,” according to Goodman, and Polestar is pushing on to recover some lost production lost earlier this year.
To further boost sales the brand will open more ‘spaces’ in the UK – units where customers can go and speak to sales experts, and see and experience the products.
Polestar currently has three spaces in the UK – London, Manchester and Solihull – and is aiming to open more. “The next big thing is opening our keynote space for London in Battersea in Q3 at the power station redevelopment, and we’ll see that number [of spaces] grow in the next six to nine months.”
This will increase visibility as the 3 and 4 SUVs make their full debuts at the end of this year and by the end of next year respectively, broadening the range alongside the 2, which Goodman believes the brand is “only just scratching the surface of what we can do [with that car].”
The Polestar 5 will join those cars by the end of 2024, with major development input from a Polestar UK engineering centre. Goodman said the firm’s UK engineering presence is a “massively important resource.”
“[Polestar 5] is a standalone platform, so we’re not beholden to anyone on that. They’re up to about 350 staff based in Coventry and MIRA, and that figure will grow, so it’ll be an enormously important part of the R&D set-up.
“They’re heavily involved with 5, and if we can get the O2 [Polestar’s convertible concept] across the line they’ll be heavily involved with that as well. I will wave the British flag, but it’s a collaborative effort alongside all of the work being done in Sweden as well.”
Elsewhere, Goodman described the possibility of a Polestar two-seat roadster based on the O2 concept as the “sixty million dollar question.”
“We’re getting really positive feedback from customers who’ve seen it at places like Goodwood and online, and from articles in the press, so I think that’s all ratcheting up pressure to say ‘Right, is there a way we can get this into production?’ so I’d say watch this space for the moment…”
Keyword: Polestar sales up 125 per cent in 2022 - and UK is big for the brand’s future