You read that right. Cancel your Porsche order! | SwedeSpeed

Polestar is trying to position themselves as serious premium electric driving cars. The Porsche thing is risky but it’s all in the positioning. But their style is not Porsche. Like Porsche, they are serious driving machines but they’re unlike Porsche in terms of design and are their own thing. They’re Swedish in design, tech based but not overly so like Tesla, sustainable in terms of materials like Volvo is, and so forth.

I saw the Porsche Macan at the auto show but it was locked and you can’t really see the interior that well. It does have a more SUV look than the 4 which looks more like a raised sedan. But the 4 is more distinctive in styling. To me, if someone is set on getting a Porsche they don’t yet cross shop Polestar. But reputations aren’t made overnight. Once people are familiar with Polestar and how they drive and there’s word of mouth about them, then their reputation will grow.

The problem with EVs is that people go on about range and tech and not driving properties and car properties. And Tesla is always a point of comparison. Polestar may actually start being compared with Lucid because Lucid vehicles have dynamic qualities and aren’t just tech and straight like performance like Tesla. I know Teslas corner well and such but they’re not really drivers cars. Lucid may be. But all of this is in its early stages first with the new players.

There’s also Lotus. Lotus is on the level of Porsche in terms of sportiness but not necessarily quality. But they’re more exotic cars than Porsche (or at least used to be). And now they’re making an SUV and sedan and who knows else. They’re a smaller volume brand and probably will be smaller than Porsche. And will Polestar and Lotus combine efforts and collaborate? All of this will play out as it will.

I think Polestar should define themselves as they see fit. We may not agree with them but right now, they’re an emerging car company. Most people have no idea what they are. I think they should stress they are European and have European heritage as a racing company and were/are maybe? Volvo’s sports tuner hence the resemblance to Volvo. Those that don’t like the Geely ownership won’t buy them. Most probably don’t care. But I don’t think they’re defining themselves enough. I’ll say this that there was a lot of interest and positive comments on the Polestars at the NYC auto show.

There was a car driving track at the auto show. Lucid, Ford, Lexus, Kia, had cars to drive. But not Polestar. I wish they did. But the car with the longest line that people signed up for was Lucid. I thought that was interesting. Ford Mach E and Kia also had long lines (EV6 and EV9).