Polestar UK boss hails rapid growth ahead of key model launches

The Polestar 3 is a performance-oriented, four-wheel-drive electric SUV designed to contend with the Audi Q8 E-tron and Jaguar I-Pace in the burgeoning premium crossover segment. Together with the smaller Polestar 4, arriving next year, it has potential to bring about a dramatic boost for Polestar sales globally and in the UK. 

Goodman wouldn’t be drawn on precise predictions for the new SUVs' performances but said: “The UK is a big SUV market, and I think that both the 3 and 4 will cater to that. With the cars on sale now, it's very encouraging – without us doing any pushing at all, or any marketing, really – to see that the orders are growing. So I think we're in a very encouraging position.”

Polestar is “not a brand that goes chasing a specific volume”, Goodman responded when asked for a 2023 sales target. “I've lived through that in the past with other brands, and it's not healthy. So it's about continuing to grow organically and sensibly, rather than forcing an unrealistic volume just because someone dreams up a number in a room somewhere in a foreign climate.”

He did however point to the “potential to grow substantially” this year, not just with the new 3 inbound and the widening of the 2 line-up but also with a significant expansion to the firm’s network of retail ‘spaces’ from three to at least six. 

Polestar remains committed to its innovative agency retail approach as its market footprint – and thus brand visibility – increases and is highly unlikely to begin wholesaling cars into dealerships, continuing to favour instead a build-to-order model that works for both retail and business customers, according to Goodman.

He said: “That's one of the advantages of our relationship with Volvo: we have 110 service points around the UK, so it's very easy for a customer to get their car serviced. We do home delivery of cars; people like that, and I think we might well broaden that so they can come and pick it up from a from a from a delivery centre. 

“I don't see the business model changing. I don't see us suddenly starting to wholesale cars into dealers. I think it's about creating the right demand for the brand and building to order. And yes, it does mean that people are going to have to have to accept that they're going to wait a few months to get the car as they require it, and I hope that carries on ad infinitum. I hope I never have fields of cars that are sitting there unsold.”

The agency sales model helps Polestar to keep stock levels in check, and at the moment the brand has just “30 or 40 cars, which are online, available pre-configured,” Goodman revealed, suggesting an approximate lead time on new cars built to order of around five months. 

“I'd like that to come down a little bit,” he said. “And if our supply gets better, that will probably come down naturally, but there will always be a two or three-month lead time for a Polestar, and I think that's right. We're selling premium motor cars; it’s not a bring-and-buy sale.”

Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition

One looming threat for established manufacturers in Europe over the coming two years will be the arrival of competitive new models from Chinese brands including Aiways, BYD, Nio (whose ET5 is pictured above) and Polestar sibling Lynk&Co. However, Goodman theorised that an influx of new contenders could fuel Polestar's growth, rather than stifle it. 

“I don't spend an awful lot of time looking at what the others are doing," he said. "We have the cars that we've got, we have the exciting developments with [the] Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 and then [the] 5 and 6 behind them coming through. And it's about us establishing what our brand is all about.