Is this electric car brand set for mainstream success? 2025 Polestar 4 and Polestar 3 set to boost brand against EV rivals like Tesla and BYD

Polestar is set to get a sales boost in 2025 from its two new models, but the company admits it hasn’t been easy to build momentum with just one model on sale.

The Geely-owned marque recently launched the Polestar 3 large SUV, quickly followed by the Polestar 4 medium coupe-style SUV, adding to the popular Polestar 2 mid-size sedan.

The 2 has been Polestar’s sole offering since it launched in late 2021 but with two models in the SUV segment now available, that’s expected to increase.

Polestar Australia Managing Director Scott Maynard acknowledged that only having one model to sell for the past three years has been a challenge, but said the Polestar 2 had been a great car to launch the brand with.

“Limiting ourselves to what looks a lot like the medium sedan market has made for a bit of a difficult sell for Polestar, but the products are good. So Polestar (2) has been great, like it's been a really, really good car, and it's done a great job for Polestar,” he told CarsGuide.

“Also the things that have been done to enhance that car, it's been life cycled really, really well, like they haven't just given it a series of nips and tucks. They've also increased battery capacity, charge times have improved, performance has improved, so it's evolved really well, and so that's made it easier.

“But yes, it's lovely to now have a bit of a range, a broader product portfolio, and critically, a line into the medium and large SUV markets, which is critical in Australia.”

Polestar’s Australian sales are down by close to 22 per cent to the end of October compared to the same period in 2023.

However, Maynard said the EV specialist will see “a bit of a boost, maybe not straight away”, and detailed some of the reasons for the downward sales.

“It's pretty clear to us from the pre orders that we've got on book that there were a lot of customers waiting to see what Polestar 4 would be like, customers wanting to see Polestar 3, and then, importantly, customers wanting to see both and compare the two.

“And so we had expected just a bit of a rollback in straight order intake while those cars were heavily publicised and not yet available. And so now we've got them available, we would expect to see that start to pick up again.”

Maynard declined to detail Polestar’s sales targets for the new models, but said the plan was to err on the side of caution when it comes to ordering and numbers.

“We've got internal numbers, but we've been quite deliberate in setting those internal planning numbers quite modestly. We don't want to push those vehicles into an overstock position, so we're carefully controlling just how available and exclusive they are, and so I'm pretty confident we can overrun the internal numbers we've got.”

Maynard said that the Polestar 4 is expected to become the brand’s top seller given its value proposition, sizing and packaging, and the fact that both grades slide in under the Federal Government’s Luxury Car Tax threshold.

Up until recently, Polestar models have only been produced at Geely Group’s Chengdu, China factory, but the company is also going to produce the Polestar 3 in South Carolina in the USA, while the Polestar 4 will be produced at a new facility in South Korea.

Maynard said that while the two new plants open up possibilities for the brand, it’s unlikely production for the Australian market will shift from China.

“Cars will still come from China for now, but we've got the option then, if, for whatever reason, we need to source out of the US, or say out of Korea, then, yes, we’ve got the option of being able to pull out of there. But for now, it actually works best for us. China gives us the shortest lead time. It gives us the quick order to build. So it works really well for us at the moment.”