Fully Electric Polestar 2 Will Fight Tesla Model 3 Directly: Report

The Polestar 2 will be the first purely electric vehicle sold by the Volvo-owned company.

byJames Gilboy|
Fully Electric Polestar 2 Will Fight Tesla Model 3 Directly: Report
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Volvo-owned premium automaker Polestar has outlined the compact electric sedan market led by the Tesla Model 3 as its target for its first all-electric vehicle, the Polestar 2.

Polestar's inaugural model, the Polestar 1, will be a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) grand tourer with more than 90 miles' electric range and over 600 horsepower. It will come in at $155,000 when production starts in mid-2019 and is meant to establish the brand as a premium manufacturer before the more affordable and all-electric Polestar 2 makes its landing. With the Polestar 2, the company will target customers who are otherwise in the market for a Tesla Model 3, though it stopped short of billing the model as a Tesla-killer.

"There is a credible new EV contender coming to the marketplace in 2019, and it's coming with 91 years of engineering prowess behind it," said North American Polestar head Greg Hembrough in a statement issued to InsideEVs. Hembrough couldn't put a price tag on the Polestar 2 but confirmed it will compete for the same market as the Model 3.

"We can't confirm pricing at this point, but I can tell you that the car will be competitive in that segment," he added.

Previous reports have specified entry-level pricing for the Polestar 2—which will come with multiple battery options—as £30,000 GBP ($38,000 USD), or near the price of the yet-to-be-built base $35,000 Model 3. Maximum range for the Polestar 2 is said to be around 350 miles on an unspecified test protocol (likely WLTP), which we presume will apply to the top-of-the-line £50,000 ($63,400 USD) model. For context, a Tesla Model 3 Long Range is capable of 334 miles on conservative EPA protocols and starts at $49,000.

Reveal of the Polestar 2's design is scheduled for the first quarter of 2019, and Polestar isn't banking on use of divisive design to get the Polestar 2 noticed.

"When I sit in the showroom at Polestar, as recently as two weeks ago, to see the design language of the vehicles, they are refreshing and surprising but not polarizing," Hembrough said, pointing to the Jaguar I-Pace as an example of a "polarizing" design.

Hembrough stated that Polestar's U.S. offensive will make landing on the west coast, in key markets such as San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle. There, it will open Polestar "spaces" (retail outlets) in locales such as premium clothing stores, where customers can conduct test drives. Much of the Polestar's retail and service structure will be contained within apps, where customers can also join the company's subscription service. It is through this app that Polestar will conduct most of its business, sale of and subscription to its vehicles included.

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