Revhead Ramblings: Forget Tesla, Polestar are the ones to watch

The fate of Volvo was very much on a knife edge in the 2000s, thankfully Geely came to the rescue and helped turn them into a strong challenger in the premium market.

Polestar have been turning Volvo’s motorway cruisers into performance cars for just 6 short years. These tuned models are a rare sight on the road but they’re still more than capable of battling with the biggest names in the industry.

A New Era

In 2017 Volvo announced Polestar would become an independent manufacturer with the aim to develop high performance electric cars. Their first car, the Polestar 1, was a luxurious 2+2 sporting a hybrid powertrain offering just under 100 miles of pure electric range. Just 500 of these flagship cars will be made and the allocation for this year has completely sold out.

Setting Their Target

The Polestar 1 looks great, has very strong figures and has already received huge support; a smash hit as far as debuts go. The Polestar 2 however is the one to watch though. A 400hp saloon starting at $45,000, that’s Tesla Model 3 territory. You might add that Tesla’s saloon starts at $35,000, although we’re yet to see it with Tesla instead opting to only sell their higher-priced performance variants thus far.

Dealerships of the Future

Polestar can offer their car at such a low price thanks to their dealership model costing ten times less than a conventional setup. By having no inventory, no service centre and a small showroom with a handful of staff, their costs can remain minimal.

This all lines up with Volvo’s overall strategy to change car ownership as we know it. The Swedish manufacturer instead want cars to be bought through a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify. All costs from the car itself to insurance and maintenance will be covered by one monthly payment.

The High End Has Changed

You may well have seen in the news that Tesla has cut the price of its most expensive cars, the new range-topping Model S Ludicrous Performance model now starts at £83,300; a reduction of £48,005! The range topping model X sees an even bigger price slash of over £50,000! Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, revealed the price cuts are down to the money they’ve saved by moving their sales online.

The Battle is Just Starting

Volvo turned their fortunes around with the help of Chinese money and building good cars. They did the opposite of Elon Musk and built their company quietly, starting production before promising the world. It almost seems like a battle of the ages between Polestar and Tesla. Both are at the forefront of technology, but one chooses to shout and brag on all forms of social media and make huge promises. While the other takes a more grown up view of the market and delivers their plan in a systematic and timely manner. I’ve got no idea who’s going to come out on top, but I can’t wait to find out!

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