In the near term, electric vehicle startup Polestar’s goal is to go more upmarket: more premium, more performance, more luxury. The Polestar 3 leads the way with starting at $67,500 in the U.S., the Polestar 4 will come in at $54,900 and the Polestar 5 will blow all of them away with a projected $100,000 price tag.
But everyone knows that long-term EV success means going mainstream too. It’s why Rivian is cooking up the R2 and Lucid Motors has its upcoming Project Midsize electric models. Luckily for anyone who’s a fan of upscale EVs that don’t completely break the bank, Polestar has big plans as well.
Those plans come in the form of the new Polestar 7, the brand’s CEO told me in an interview, and the next-generation Polestar 2 sedan—which he recently confirmed is not dead after all.
The Polestar 7 in particular will be a big deal for the brand when it debuts, CEO Michael Lohscheller told me. It will be made in Europe, although the Chinese-owned, Swedish carmaker has not announced a production site yet. It is projected to launch in 2027.
Photo by: Polestar
CEO Michael Lohscheller. Photo: Polestar
“We’re talking about a compact SUV. It’s a big segment,” Lohscheller said. “It’s also a big profit pool for us as a company. I think it’s the fastest growing segment globally, and we want to get our fair share out of that, and also make sure that the Polestar brand is positioned a bit broader—not just in terms of price, but also in terms of volume.”
He added, “It will not replace the Polestar 2. That will continue as a sedan, and then I think we will have a super-exciting portfolio.”
After the low-volume plug-in hybrid Polestar 1, the Polestar 2 put the nascent brand on the map and presented itself as one of the most effective Tesla Model 3 competitors on the market. It’s received a number of upgrades over its lifetime, including switching its entry-level model from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive and adding more range and features.
Photo by: InsideEVs
But the Polestar 2 sedan could only carry the brand so far in an SUV-crazed market. And it has another problem: it’s made in China, which in the U.S. means it’s subject to tariffs that are yielding a significant price hike. These days, the sole 2025 Polestar 2 you can buy is the Long Range Dual Motor with Performance Pack at $66,200—up some $15,000 from last year.
These days, Polestar is focused on its newest models, the Polestar 3 SUV and Polestar 4 SUV-coupe, Lohscheller said. And those cars are unique for where and how they’re built; the Polestar 3 is made in South Carolina alongside the Volvo EX90, while the Polestar 4 is made in South Korea on a totally different Volvo and Geely Group platform.
But the next Polestar 2 will be built on a global EV platform that will eventually encompass all of Polestar’s models, Lohscheller said. That includes the Polestar 7 too. By keeping the Polestar 2 around, they can still appeal to buyers worldwide who want an electric sedan and offfer more options on how to come into the brand, he said.
“I think the Polestar 2 is a very successful car,” he said. “We have sold more than 170,000 of it. For a young brand like Polestar, that’s a big success. A lot of people like it, and a lot of people also move up from a Polestar 2 to a Polestar 4 or a Polestar 3… never change the winning team.”
Photo by: InsideEVs
An artist’s rendering of the Polestar 7, based on the Zeekr X SUV. Credit Ralph Hermens for InsideEVs
But SUVs are where Polestar is really missing out, Lohscheller said. He demurred when asked exactly how big it will be, though he alluded to the European C-segment SUVs—think the Volkswagen Tiguan, Audi Q3 or Toyota RAV4—making it somewhere between “compact” and “midsize.” He also declined to say whether the Polestar 7 would be aimed directly at the Tesla Model Y, although that feels like a safe assumption.
What’s missing from the discussion is how much these cars might cost, or what platform they could eventually use. Polestar’s owner, China’s Geely Group, makes many different EV and plug-in hybrid platforms but is working to streamline its hardware across its many brands.
When I asked if the Polestar 7 could draw from the platforms or designs of other Geely Group EVs, namely the Zeekr X and Lynk & Co Z20, Lohscheller was cagey. “It will have that Polestar DNA in terms of design, but also technology and performance,” he said. But he added that streamlining to one common platform will help Polestar cut costs and move more quickly as the space grows.
“You have to manage a lot of complexity with different platforms,” he said. “Every car has a few thousand different part numbers. It also has a very significant cost advantage if you harmonize… You reduce your complexity, you improve your cost, and I think your time to market is also much faster. Those are significant benefits in the EV space.”
But he added that since the cars’ debut is several years away, Polestar has time to figure out how to circumvent a potential U.S. ban on Chinese-sourced software—something Polestar previously said would “effectively prohibit” it from selling vehicles in America.
“We will find a solution,” Lohscheller said. “[The ban] is still being finalized, but we will use the time between now and model year 2027 when those regulations will start to be effective. The U.S. is an important market for us.”
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
