Polestar opens up seven new markets in 2025

Polestar is gearing up to expand its retail operations, targeting seven new markets in 2025, including a return to France, where Citroën kicked it out. As the company’s model line-up grows, the conquest of new markets aims to capitalize on emerging opportunities.

In 2025, Polestar plans to accelerate its geographic expansion by entering seven new markets. France, the EU’s second-largest electric vehicle (EV) market after Germany, presents a significant opportunity. Polestar also aims to establish itself in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Thailand, and Brazil through local distribution partnerships. By the end of last year, Polestar aimed to cover at least 30 markets but landed on 27.

Legal row over logo

The return to the French market is of particular interest, as Citroën kicked out the premium EV maker after a legal row over its logo dating back to 2017. The French car maker deemed the resemblance with its own logo too strong. Both brands settled in September 2022, but Polestar wasn’t too keen about re-entering until now. EV sales in France are expected to jump fourfold by 2027, and clearly, the Swedish-Chinese EV maker wants to tap into the opportunity.

Polestar is enhancing its retail footprint with existing and new partners and transitioning to a hybrid agency sales model across Europe. The manufacturer shares more of the sales process control with appointed dealerships in this format. This change allows customers to configure and order their Polestar vehicles online and through the network of Polestar Spaces and service locations.

Sweden and Norway have already adopted this model, with additional key markets set to follow in the latter half of the year. The brand has selected ten more dealers in Scandinavia, for instance. Similar to the underwhelming EV adoption across Europe, innovative sales methods are too far ahead of their time as a standalone option.

‘To reach more customers’

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath emphasizes the importance of the shift toward a more traditional approach: “Expanding our retail operations with new and existing partners will enable us to reach more customers. Through these partnerships and expansion, we will capitalize on our strong brand and growing model line-up.”

The market expansion comes as Polestar is expanding its model line-up. The Polestar 4, a mid-size SUV coupé, is gaining traction globally. Production is currently at Geely Holdings’ SEA factory in China and is set to expand to a Renault plant in South Korea by mid-2025.

The Polestar 3, produced in China, will soon also see a manufacturing start at Volvo Cars’ plant in South Carolina, US. These local or non-Chinese production units will be pivotal for the brand to circumnavigate penalty levies on both sides of the Atlantic.