Volvo’s Polestar joins electric car race with rival to Tesla 3
STOCKHOLM: Volvo Cars’ luxury performance brand Polestar unveiled its first fully electric sedan on Wednesday, opening up online pre-orders for the five-seater fastback at a price and with a driving range to rival Tesla’s mass market Model 3.
Sporting signature Polestar gold seat belts, the Polestar 2 will cost about 59,900 euros ($68,100) for its launch edition and can be driven for around 275 miles before it needs recharging - broadly in line with the Model 3’s current price in Europe of 58,800 euros and about 260 miles range.
The Model 3 and Polestar 2 are cheaper than most of the electric models launched by traditional premium carmakers so far, as Tesla and Polestar bet mass market customers are on the verge of adopting battery technology. Both have also promised even lower prices later on.
Polestar’s launch comes as Tesla is trying to ramp up Model 3 sales in Europe and China, where recent government subsidies and programmes are boosting the take up of electric vehicles. A cut in subsidies in the United States, in contrast, is dampening demand in the Californian start-up’s home market.
Tesla was dealt a setback this month after influential US magazine Consumer Reports withdrew its endorsement for the Model 3, citing reliability problems. Analysts say Polestar has strong engineering as it is built on the Volvo platform.
Polestar’s chief executive said he hoped to sell “north of ” 50,000 Polestar 2s annually within two or three years after deliveries start from the first half of 2020.
“If the market develops fine, I don’t think the production volume will be the limitation. It depends much more on how the car resonates with the market, how the market develops and how the tariffs develop,” Thomas Ingenlath said.
Carmakers including Volkswagen, Mercedesbenz and BMW are beginning deliveries of premium electric cars unveiled over the past year as they try to muscle in on a market that Tesla has dominated so far.
Securing the electric market has become increasingly important as demand for traditional combustion engine vehicles slows in China and Europe, partly due to tariffs stemming from Washington’s trade war with Beijing.— Reuters