They call it “the most Polestar Polestar yet.” It rides on a bespoke electric-vehicle platform unique to that car. It won’t be watered down to make a crossover. And it won’t be shared across the board with Polestar’s many corporate cousins.
All of that is part of what makes the Polestar 5 so special. But when it comes to making sure that the electric super-sedan arrives in the United States, it’s also part of the problem. The 884-horsepower, aluminum-bodied electric sedan will be built in China, at a new plant in Chongqing. That’s not entirely surprising. Polestar’s parent company is the Chinese conglomerate Geely, and the Polestar 2 is also manufactured in China.
But car manufacturing plans are long-term decisions. That one didn’t account for President Joe Biden and then President Donald Trump stepping up U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, which now face duties of over 100%.
“Obviously, it’s going to be super difficult to bring this car into the U.S. under the current circumstances,” Martin Rosenqvist, the Polestar 5’s vehicle program business lead, told me at the car’s launch drive in England a few weeks ago.
“We’re definitely looking across the board of what’s possible to do, but with such a relatively expensive setup catered for relatively low volume, it’s always going to be very difficult to multiply that across regions,” he added.
In other words, the Polestar 5 isn’t expected to be a big-volume seller like a Tesla Model 3. That may be readily apparent from its 119,900 Euro base price, or about $140,000 at current exchange rates. But since the U.S. is currently imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, its price here could be stratospherically higher. That makes its U.S. debut an open question.
For now, Polestar isn’t saying. “As with previous vehicles, we are taking a staggered approach to the launch,” a Polestar spokesperson said. “The initial launch locations for Polestar 5 will include 24 of our 28 active markets and availability for customers in the U.S. will be announced at a later date.”
Ultimately, the Polestar 5’s situation shows how volatile global trade decisions can be for the long-term planning that’s endemic to the auto business.
Unlike other car brands that centralize production in one factory or maybe a handful of others, Polestar’s EVs are made all over the world and leverage the entire Geely Group family. The Polestar 3 crossover is made in South Carolina alongside its Volvo cousin, for example; the upcoming Polestar 4 is made in South Korea at a Renault plant after Geely struck a deal with that automaker. And while the Polestar 2 being made in China may not have been a big deal once, the tariff situation has led to to being basically discontinued in the U.S.
Polestar calls its global production strategy an “asset-light” model. But the Polestar 5’s unique platform makes it an asset that can’t be moved around easily.
“You cannot take a bonded aluminum structure and just replicate that in any plant,” Rosenqvist said. “It needs a special setup. With the Polestar 3 that we are building in Charleston, we’re doing that because we have a lot of commonality with the EX90 that Volvo is building in Charleston. But if you don’t have a donor car or a plant to go into where you can sort of trade off the investments, then it becomes very, very difficult.”
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Source: Polestar
The car’s aluminum structure is key to its structural rigidity and other attributes that make it an extremely high-performing EV. The Polestar 5 packs a 112-kilowatt-hour battery (106 kWh usable) battery that supplies nearly 900 hp in top Performance form. Its zero to 60 mph dash happens in under three seconds, all while boasting an impressive 350-kilowatt max charging speed. And with over 300 miles of range, it could be the kind of premium halo car Polestar needs to make a statement here in the U.S.
While the Sino-Swedish brand made waves early on with a Tesla Model 3 competitor in the Polestar 2, it has since been dogged with uneven global sales and frustrations from both the Geely mothership and its onetime financial partner, Volvo. But with the launch of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 in recent months, the EV brand has seen a nice rebound in sales.
Though the Polestar 5 is a low-volume EV, its presence on the roads could certainly help Polestar get the attention it needs. And tariffs or no, company officials said they still hope that can happen for American drivers someday.
“No one would be happier than us if we were able to launch this car immediately in the U.S.,” Rosenqvist said. “I think it’s a great fit for a lot of the U.S. consumers. I think this is going to be a car that you want to drive from coast to coast. I would personally look forward to that.”
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
