Polestar started life as a Volvo tuning house and is now an EV manufacturer with proven sales.
2022 was a great year for electric vehicle sales globally. Despite the ongoing global supply chain problems, numerous pandemic-related lock downs throughout China and economic uncertainty, many brands managed to deliver a record number of electric vehicles. One of these brands was Polestar – the Swedish electric performance brand that’s closely tied to Geely and Volvo Cars.
In 2022, they managed to close about 51,500 sales, making it the company’s best sales year since introducing the Polestar 1 back in 2018. It’s very likely that all of these sales came from just one model – the Polestar 2. The Polestar 1 was discontinued for 2022 (though it’s possible some late deliveries were completed) and the company is only going to start delivering the Polestar 3 in 2023.
Speaking of 2023, Polestar anticipated further growth with a sales target of 80,000 units and the introduction of the Polestar 4.
“I’m proud of the many milestones we achieved in 2022 and in particular the massive team effort that went into delivering our strongest quarter to date – surpassing our 50,000 global volumes target for the year. We are now fully focused on 2023. There will be the usual quarterly variations, but I’m confident that we will continue to actively manage our supply chain to meet the growing demand for Polestar 2, commence first deliveries of Polestar 3 and launch Polestar 4,” says Polestar CEO, Thomas Ingenlath.
Why Was Q4 2022 exceptionally good?
21,000 units were sold in Q4 2022 alone. That represents 40% of their 2022 sales in just a single quarter. Why was that? Well, we think there are a number of factors explaining this.
Most likely it’s related to improving supply and an increase in the number of markets where Polestars are sold.
In the first half of 2022 alone, Polestar expanded into the UAE, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. In the second half, they added Israel and Italy to that list. What’s more, it’s possible that France was also silently added to that list.
In September 2022, Polestar and Citroën settled an ongoing dispute over similarities in their logos. Evidently the Judicial Court of Paris thought that the Polestar logo and its two chevrons would confuse the average French car buyer into thinking they were buying a Citroën. Thus, Polestar vehicles were banned from sale in France. The two carmakers settled out of court and that could have opened up the floodgates for eager French EV buyers.
