Polestar
Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC, or simply Polestar, is a Swedish automotive manufacturer that produces electric cars. Principally owned by Li Shufu's PSD Investment, Geely Holding and Volvo Cars, the company is headquartered in Torslanda, outside Gothenburg, Sweden. The brand originated from Flash Engineering, a Swedish motorsport team established in 1996 that competed in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.
Also recorded as Polestar Racing · Polestar Performance AB
Polestar

Green Yoshi · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Polestar
- Founded
- 1996.
- Headquarters
- Gothenburg.
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wikidata · Q4047174 · wikipedia · Polestar
In this article
Overview
Overview
In 2005, the team was sold and renamed Polestar Racing, which later operated a production car tuning division called Polestar Performance AB. In July 2015, the Polestar brand was acquired by Volvo Cars, which repositioned the brand as an electric vehicle manufacturer since 2017. The racing team was then rebranded as Cyan Racing, while still maintaining close ties to Volvo. The current United Kingdom-based holding company of Polestar, Polestar Automotive Holdings UK PLC was jointly formed in 2021 by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding Group. Polestar shares began trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol PSNY on 24 June 2022.
Fredrik Ekblom driving for Volvo Polestar Racing at Falkenbergs Motorbana, during the fifth round of the 2015 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) season.
Philip Folkesson
Fredrik Ekblom driving for Volvo Polestar Racing at Falkenbergs Motorbana, during the fifth round of the 2015 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) season.
Philip Folkesson
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Polestar • Origin — Sweden • Previousowners — Polestar Racing (2005–2015) • Currentowner — Volvo Cars
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Polestar Automotive Holding UK PLC • Type — Public • Key People — * Michael Lohscheller (CEO) • Winfried Vahland (chairman) • Products — Electric vehicle • Hq Location — * Torslanda, Sweden (operational) • Bristol, England, UK (legal) • Area Served — * Europe • China • United States (until 2026) • Canada • Owner — * PSD Investment (Li Shufu) (44%) • Geely Holding (22%) • Volvo Cars (16%) • Public shareholders (18%) • Revenue — 2.38 billion (2023) • Operating Income — −1.46 billion (2023) • Net Income — −1.17 billion (2023) • Assets — 4.13 billion (2023) • Equity — 1.25 billion (2023) • Num Employees — 2,547 (2024)
Racing team and tuning brand (1996–2017)
Racing team and tuning brand (1996–2017)
The company origins can be traced to the 1996 foundation of Flash Engineering, a Swedish racing team competing in Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC). The team was sold and rebranded as Polestar Racing, which began modifying Volvos for racing in the late 2000s. In 2009, the brand became the official Volvo partner to modify existing models, under the brand Polestar Performance. Volvo eventually bought the company in July 2015 and began selling Polestar-enhanced models directly through their resellers. • Illustration — Polestar logo until 2016 Polestar has also produced prototype cars, with the first being the C30 Polestar Performance Concept Prototype (2010) with over 400 bhp and 510 Nm. • Illustration — Volvo V60 Polestar The Volvo S60 Polestar Concept is the heir to the C30 Polestar, featuring 508 BHP from a modified T6 engine, launched in June 2012. The car sprints from 0 - in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of over 300 kph. Motor Trend tested the car at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where it broke the lap record for four-door cars, matching the lap time of an Audi R8. Selection of petrol and hybrid powered Volvo-based Polestar models: • Introduced — Model — Type — Engine — Drivetrain • 2009 — Volvo C30 Polestar Concept — Concept — 5-cylinder, 2500 cc, turbocharged, 451 PS — AWD, 6-speed manual • 2012 — Volvo S60 Polestar Concept — Concept — 6-cylinder, 3000 cc, turbocharged, 508 PS — AWD, 6-speed manual • 2013 — Volvo S60/V60 Polestar — Production — 6-cylinder, 3000 cc, turbocharged, 350 PS — AWD, 6-speed auto • 2016 — Volvo S60/V60 Polestar Drive-E — Production — 4-cylinder, 1969 cc, turbocharged, 367 PS — AWD, 8-speed auto • 2018 — Volvo S60 T8 Polestar Engineered — Production — 4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PS — AWD, 8-speed auto • 2020 — Volvo V60 T8 Polestar Engineered — Production — 4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PS — AWD, 8-speed auto • 2020 — Volvo XC60 T8 Polestar Engineered — Production — 4-cylinder, 1969 cc, plug-in hybrid, 415 PS — AWD, 8-speed auto
Standalone brand (2017–present)
Standalone brand (2017–present)
In October 2017, Volvo Cars and Geely Holding announced that Polestar would become a standalone brand focusing on electric cars. The brand introduced the Polestar 1 on 17 October 2017, a 2+2 coupé inspired by Volvo's Concept Coupé introduced in 2013, which includes influences from the Volvo P1800. The Polestar 1 was built between 2019 and 2021, and was built in a new purpose-built Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu, China, from 2019 at a rate of up to 500 per year. During its final year of production, a limited-production gold-painted version of Polestar 1 was released. Only 25 units were produced. • Illustration — Polestar's showroom in Oslo, Norway In 2019, Polestar announced their second car, the Polestar 2 electric car. It was unveiled on 27 February 2019, in an online unveiling which was broadcast from the Polestar headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. Directly after, it had its public debut at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. It is produced at Volvo Cars's existing plant in Taizhou, China. It received a mid-life refresh for its 2024 year-model, switching to a rear-wheel drive layout for its single-motor option, and various performance and cosmetic changes for the base model and performance package, respectively. Polestar replaced the existing front grille with a body-color front-end treatment that houses new safety hardware, including a front-facing camera and a new mid-range radar, matching the Polestar 3, dubbed the "SmartZone". In March 2022, Polestar launched a roadster concept named the Polestar O 2, and later in August 2022, Polestar announced a sixth new roadster model dubbed Polestar 6 based on the O 2 concept car, expected to enter production in 2026. In 2023, Polestar announced construction of its new headquarters – a 80000 m2 building in central Gothenburg. In February 2024, Volvo (itself 79.5% owned by Geely at the time) announced that it would attempt to reduce its ownership stake in Polestar from 48% to 18%, by transferring 921 million of stock to its shareholders. This would result in PSD Investment (Geely founder Li Shufu's personal company) becoming the largest shareholder with at least a 39% stake. In April 2024, Geely Holdings became a major new shareholder, directly owning approximately 24% of Polestar. The free float also rose to about 18% of shares at that time, signifying that Volvo's February plan had been substantially realized. In June 2025, Polestar announced a US$200 million equity investment by PSD Investment, an entity that is controlled by Li Shufu. Polestar sold more than 190 million Class A American depositary shares (ADS) to PSD Investment - which would make Li Shufu holds 44% of Polestar. The transaction would reduce Volvo Cars' stake in Polestar from 18% to 16%, with Geely and Li Shufu's stake increased to 66% combined. In October 2025, Polestar closed its last direct-sales store in China, while the company said its other operations in China would be unaffected by the closure. In June 2026, Polestar announced that it would be withdrawing from the United States market after the United States Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, citing a rule banning vehicles that use connected software and hardware associated with China and Russia, denied Polestar the right to sell new vehicles after the 2027 model year. The company stated that it would continue to service existing cars in the country.
Corporate leadership
Corporate leadership
• Current: • Winfried Vahland (Chairman since October 2024) • Michael Lohscheller (Chief Executive Officer since 2024)
Previous leadship
Previous leadship
• Thomas Ingenlath (Chief Executive Officer from 2017 to 2024) • Håkan Samuelsson (Chairman from 2017 to 2024)
Current and future vehicles
Current and future vehicles
• Image — Name — Introduction (cal. calendar year) — Platform — Powertrain — Vehicle description — Assembly location • — Polestar 2 — 2020 — CMA — Battery electric — Compact executive car (D) with a 5-door liftback body style — China: Luqiao, Zhejiang (Luqiao CMA Super Factory) • — Polestar 3 — 2024 — SPA2 — Battery electric — Mid-size SUV (E), related to the Volvo EX90 • — Polestar 4 — 2024 — SEA — Battery electric — Compact coupe SUV (D) • — Polestar 5 — 2025 — PPA — Battery electric — Mid-size sedan (E) • — Polestar 6 — 2026 (planned) — SEA — Battery electric — Sports car • Polestar 7 — 2028 (planned) — SPA3 — Battery electric — Compact SUV (D) — Slovakia: Košice
Discontinued vehicles
Discontinued vehicles
• Image — Name(s) — Production (cal. calendar year) — Platform — Powertrain — Vehicle description — Assembly location • — Polestar 1 — 2019–2022 — SPA — Plug-in hybrid — Sports car / grand tourer, 1,500 units produced. — |China: Chengdu (Polestar Plant)
Performance optimisation
Performance optimisation
Under the label Polestar Engineered, Polestar offers enhancements for Volvo cars which deliver upgraded performance. Examples are engine optimizations with retained warranty and unchanged fuel consumption and emissions. The engine optimization increases the power and torque output, varying depending on engine model. The response of the throttle can be modified and the character of the transmission is tweaked. • Illustration — Polestar Precept In 2022, a special version of Polestar 2 was released as a Polestar Engineered product: the limited-production Polestar 2 BST edition 270, of which only 270 will exist.
Finances
Finances
Since December 2023, Polestar is a publicly traded company trading under the symbol PSNY on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Key figures: • Year — Revenue (mil. USD) — Net income (mil. USD) — Employees • 2019 — 92 — −198 • 2020 — 610 — −485 • 2021 — 1,346 — −969 — 1,300 • 2022 — 2,444 — −477 — 2,377 • 2023 — 2,379 — −1,195 — 2,515
Racing
Racing
Polestar has been working with Volvo since 1996, starting with racing Volvo cars and being involved in the development of race cars for Cyan Racing. In 2014, Polestar was involved in the development of a V8 powered Volvo S60 that was raced by Garry Rogers Motorsport in the Australian V8 Supercars series. Robert Dahlgren was seconded to Australia in 2014 as part of this programme and pulled out in the end of 2016.
Logo dispute in France
Logo dispute in France
In 2019, French brand Citroën alleged that the Polestar company logo – also formed of chevrons – is too close to those of its Citroën and DS Automobiles brands. In the absence of an amicable agreement, Citroën took to the Tribunal de grande instance in July 2019. The latter, in a decision dated 4 June 2020, found in favor of the French manufacturer, a decision confirmed on appeal on 14 June 2020. As a result, from December 2021, Polestar vehicles cannot be purchased in France. In September 2022, it was reported that Citroën and Polestar had settled their dispute.
Other ventures
Other ventures
In August 2022, the company announced it would supply batteries and charging hardware to Candela for electric boats that would "fly" on hydrofoils.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1996
Polestar established.
1996
Polestar is recorded from 1996.
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People and holdings
Those recorded as working within this institution, and the records it holds or is connected with.
Place
1- SwedenPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Polestar, revision 1378019519 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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