The automotive landscape continues to shift with the road crumbling beneath automakers with constant policy changes with the daily political winds. Today’s victim is Polestar.
On Thursday, Polestar announced it will wind down operations in the U.S. and focus on Europe. The decision is a direct result, and forced by, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security failing to grant the automaker an authorization under the current Connected Vehicle Rule to sell cars in the U.S. from model year 2027 on.
A Polestar spokesperson told The Drive that the automaker will continue to sell current stock as it does today. However, moving forward Polestar will stop marketing and sales of new cars in the U.S. market.
“Customers will enjoy the same access to service and customer service as they do now,” the spokesperson said.
The wind down of marketing and staff will drop off relatively quickly and no 2027 model year vehicles were en route to the U.S. yet, the spokesperson said.
Today, Polestar has about 100 employees in the U.S. along with 32 dealers. Those dealerships will continue to exist to support and service current Polestar vehicles and customers. The spokesperson said dealers will sell through current inventory and then support service efforts while also selling used vehicles.
At the current moment Polestar sells two models, the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4. The former is a sportier, swoopier two-row variant of the Volvo EX90 while the latter is a high-riding fastback crossover with a hatch with no rear window.
In February Polestar announced its plans to reboot and regroup. Five months later its ceasing sales operations in the U.S. market.
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