Polestar to double its retail stores as it seeks to ramp up EV sales
Polestar plans to launch in nine more markets this year, doubling its global presence as it seeks to sell more of its electric sedans.
The company, which is the electric performance vehicle brand under Volvo Car Group, said it is also planning to double the number of retail stores to 100 locations and add more service centers by the end of the year. Some of the retail locations will be temporary pop-up stores. The Swedish automaker has more than 650 so-called “service points” in Polestar markets and wants to exceed 780 by the end of 2021.
This pace of expansion doesn’t appear to be waning. Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said in a statement that the company aims to expand at a similar rate in terms of new markets in 2022. “This continued pace, combined with new retail concepts, will support our goal to exceed our owners’ expectations,” he added.
Today, Polestar has one primary product: the all-electric Polestar 2. But it has plans to add more to its portfolio in the coming years. The automaker announced in June that it would manufacture its first all-electric SUV in the United States. The SUV, which is called the Polestar 3, will be assembled at a plant shared with Volvo Cars at a factory in Ridgeville, South Carolina.
The Polestar 3 follows the all-electric Polestar 2 sedan and the hybrid grand tourer Polestar 1. Production of Polestar 3 is expected to begin globally in 2022.
As Polestar scales up, it’s keen to find new ways to reach customers. The main strategy is to add more retail stores and expand in existing markets or into new ones. The company said Monday it is also experimenting with a new concept called Polestar Destinations. These “destinations” act just likes its “Polestar Spaces” stores, but are larger and located outside of urban centers. These destination stores will also act as centers where customers can pick up their vehicles, which can be ordered and paid for online.
The company is also adding 60 more test drive locations by the end of 2021 to provide additional access to Polestar 2 vehicles.
All of this expansion is being supported by an influx of $550 million that Polestar raised in April in an external round led by Chongqing Chengxing Equity Investment Fund Partnership, Zibo Financial Holding and Zibo Hightech Industrial Investment. SK Inc., the South Korean global conglomerate, and a range of other investors also participated in that round.
While this was Polestar’s first external round, the company suggested at the time that it wouldn’t be the last.
Polestar plans to launch in nine more markets this year, doubling its global presence as it seeks to sell more of its electric sedans. The company, which is the electric performance vehicle brand under Volvo Car Group, said it is also planning to double the number of retail stores to…
Recent Posts
- Meta rolls out new Meta AI website, and it might just bury Microsoft and Google’s AI dreams
- The podcast industry keeps reinventing itself
- Honda unveils a series of sleek EVs for China and they’re way more exciting than anything we get in the rest of the world
- You should be playing Music League
- Razer’s Kishi Ultra gaming controller works with damn near everything, including some foldables
Archives
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011