Polestar’s plans
New brand’s first car will be left-hand drive at launch, but a UK set-up is possible later
Right-hand drive isn’t ruled out
The Polestar 1 GT coupé will not be offered in right-hand drive when the car goes on sale in 2019 – but the Volvo spin-off brand’s bosses have said they would like to offer it as an option in the future.
Jonathan Goodman, Polestar’s chief operating officer, said the initial limited production run for the 592bhp four-seater (only 500 will be built per year at the firm’s new production centre in Chengdu, China) made an uncompromised right-hand-drive version uneconomical.
“It’s an engineering cost, that’s the honest answer,” said Goodman. “You’re not going to get me to sit here and say it’s the right thing to do – it would be a bit strange coming from an Englishman to say I don’t think we should have [righthand drive].
“We’re building 500 cars a year, so we’ve got to be realistic about how we do that. Right-hand drive is not excluded in the future – we want to see if we can get more production volume, which is a possibility. That will depend on opportunities in the future.”
The Polestar 1 is designed as a halo model to showcase the new brand’s range of electric performance cars. It will be followed by the Polestar 2, a mid-sized battery-electric vehicle (BEV), and the Polestar 3, a ‘low-roofed, aerodynamic’ SUV.
Goodman said both of these models, which will have far larger production runs than the Polestar 1, would be available in right-hand drive from the start.
Polestar bosses declined to give too many details on the forthcoming models. Company boss Thomas Ingenlath promised that the Polestar 2 would be a “unique proposition”, calling it a “BEV that will appeal to automotive aficionados”.
The model is conceived as a Tesla Model 3 rival, and Goodman hinted that it would at least match the planned 310-mile range of that model.
“The plan is not for us to launch a car that isn’t competitive,” he said.