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New car launches and a growing number of retail locations mean Polestar is set for a big year in 2024, according to its UK boss.
The EV brand has recorded strong sales improvement in 2023 with a range consisting of only one model, the Polestar 2, but is set to see its line-up triple during the next few months with the arrival of the Polestar 3 SUV, and Polestar 4 SUV-coupe.
Head of Polestar UK Jonathan Goodman told Business Car that the coming year was therefore "a huge one" for the brand.
He said: "We delivered our first car in the UK in August 2020. We did 7,500 cars last year. Look at the SMMT November figures, we've done over 11,000 this year, so the growth is very good, and that's with one car.
"There are now over 22,000 Polestars on the road in the UK. It's no longer a little invisible brand, it's very much part of the automotive environment.
"You know the importance of SUVs in the UK market. I guess the two fastest-growing segments certainly in the EV industry are SUVs, so to have a Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 coming within months of each other is for us a real opportunity to broaden the appeal of the brand, and to continue to grow the sales, and we expect to do that with those two cars.
"To have the Polestar 3 around the £80,000 mark and the Polestar 4 around the £60,000 mark gives you some extra steps through the market. And you attract people who say they need an SUV who wouldn't come and look at the Polestar 2."
Goodman spoke to Business Car at the opening of the sixth UK 'Polestar Space' retail location, and its first in a suburban area (at Elstree in Hertfordshire) having previously focused on shopping centres.
Unsurprisingly for a pure EV brand, given wider market trends associated with the provision of government incentives, most of Polestar's UK business is to fleets, and Goodman says that company car drivers who visit one of the brand's outlets can be assured of equal treatment with retail customers.
He said: "Fleet is very important to us. For me, one of the fundamentals we wanted to establish was that people got a great experience when they walk in here however they are funding their car, so if it's a company car, a fleet car, they will be treated exactly the same as a retail customer.
"There's a very simple reason for that - we do not pay commission to any of our product specialists. They are salaried, and their job is to interact with the customer and deal with their queries.
"That makes a massively different experience for the company car driver who comes in, because they're not asked to justify their existence, not asked which company and told 'we don't deal with them' - here it makes no difference.
"A company car driver whose car is based in and around a fairly big area around here, the dealership will earn their commission whether that's a company car driver, retail driver or anything else."
Goodman said that, with EVs still a novelty for many drivers, the Polestar retail network had a vital role to play in providing information.
He said: "I think for the vast majority of company car drivers still this is probably their first EV, so they can get all the information they want about the car, about charging, about all the questions they have on the EV business.
"For us the business is the same, be it retail or be it fleet. We want the customers to be looked after and enjoy the experience."
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