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News - PolestarPolestar Australia charts its next 30 monthsDiscounting to be used when required as Polestar bolsters demand for 2, 3 and 414 Jul 2025 By TOM BAKER AN ALIGNMENT of Australia’s electric vehicle incentives and a local appreciation for Swedish motoring has made Polestar’s local operation a surprisingly big fish in a small pond, with Australian buyers accounting for nearly four per cent of global Polestar sales over the last 18 months.
“Locally, Australia is doing very well. We occupy the number eight slot globally (out of) 28 markets. We now get a fair voice in head-office discussions, and a pretty strong seat at the table even when it comes to things like product, which is great,” Polestar Australia managing director Scott Maynard told GoAuto.
While global sales of the Volvo-derived, Geely-owned, all-electric performance car brand fell to 44,851 units in 2024, fortunes have reversed in the first half of 2025 with Australia’s six-month result of 1173 deliveries continuing to make up 3.8 per cent of the marque’s 30,319 January-June tally.
Recent success has been buoyed by Polestar’s eight local retail points being flush with new metal, however, with the Polestar 4 coupe-SUV (PS4, 676 deliveries) and Polestar 3 large SUV (PS3, 101 units) contributing their share alongside the four-year-old Polestar 2 sedan (PS2, 396 sales).
Speaking with GoAuto in Sydney, Mr Maynard shared his view on how the marque will manage the coming two-and-a-half years before the arrival of the crucial Polestar 7 (PS7), a small premium SUV belatedly announced by Gothenburg earlier this year and set to be built in Europe from 2027.
If it arrived today, key rivals to the PS7 would include the popular BMW iX1 and iX2 siblings (1395 deliveries in the first half of 2025) and the Mercedes-Benz EQA (446). Locked in for production at Volvo’s Kosice, Slovakia plant, it may be twinned with the replacement for the venerable Volvo EX40 (365).
“The Polestar 6 (convertible) has been postponed while we direct all of our design and engineering energy into PS7,” Mr Maynard said. “The logical next step for us is a premium compact SUV rather than another hot sportscar.
“I don’t have a secured production week but start of sales will be late 2027 with (Australian) deliveries in 2028. It would be great to pull a car out of the box faster but I am happy we still want to make sure what we produce is exactly right,” Mr Maynard said.
The earliest Australian customer handover for PS7 is still an agonising 30-month wait for Polestar Australia, which will need to tide itself over by keeping its core PS2, PS3 and PS4 range relevant and attractively priced in the meantime.
Heavy-lifting duties will be allocated to the PS2 and PS4, which local planners dub the “better-value” models, with the PS2 targeting the Tesla Model 3 and BMW i4 while the PS4 is aimed at the Audi Q4 E-Tron and Cupra Tavascan.
While Polestar Australia has pivoted from pitching the PS2 towards large fleets (including rental and rideshare), the liftback still enjoys the lion’s share of discounting with campaign pricing falling as low as $54,000 drive-away this year against list pricing of $62,400-$80,380 plus on-road costs.
Expect to see Polestar continue to offer attractive retail pricing on Polestar 2, which is offered in RWD/AWD formats with 67kWh/79kWh battery packs, as key sales moments continue.
“I would rather discount PS2 and see that go out with (private) volume, and use that car to get the brand recognised, than push volume through big fleet,” Mr Maynard said.
“It was supported by traditional EOFY campaigns (and) the EOFY discount on PS2 has been extended.”
Mr Maynard revealed that Polestar Australia’s first big flex of its muscle coincided with agreeing PS4 pricing with Gothenburg, with the coupe-SUV’s $78,500-$107,198 + ORC sticker allowing some variants to fall below the luxury car tax (LCT) and qualify for demand-stimulating purchase incentives.
“We did have some fairly significant wins in the pricing discussion of PS4 using the argument (of Australia’s relative size within Polestar),” Mr Maynard said.
Like PS2, the PS4 is available in RWD/AWD versions with a standard 94kWh pack.
“We have more potential in PS4 that we can unlock to get more growth; we have an LCT limit that provides significant benefits. Let’s try and make sure we can get as much of the (PS4) product on the right side of that,” said Mr Maynard.
Ahead of the arrival of the PS5 sports sedan as Polestar’s true halo model, the local operation is hoping to move away from the generous discounting it has used to try and establish the PS3 large SUV from launch.
Despite list pricing of between $116,754-$154,454 + ORC, a proportion of PS3 inventory was sold to Australian buyers at deep discounting, with GoAuto aware of even highly specified stock transacting beneath the LCT threshold, representing discounts of around 35 per cent.
To counter the depth of discounting, Polestar Australia has introduced a lower-priced RWD grade which may be the ‘promotional’ variant in future. Like the AWD models, it utilises a 107kWh battery but with up to 706km range (WLTP).
Large batteries and sophisticated mechanicals (including an available twin-clutch rear differential) position the PS3 against luxe rivals like the BMW iX – a rivalry Polestar is keen to stoke while avoiding heavy future discounting.
“We have done a lot of work to increase demand for PS3 and we have seen average monthly sales lift,” Mr Maynard said.
“We did have to give it a nudge. With that now done, it seems to be carrying a bit of momentum.
“We have to protect the brand image of PS3. We are still seeking to position it in a particular set of competitors, and not let it drop too far below that. We are happy for it to stay relatively exclusive and low volume to make sure we look after the long-term picture for PS3 (including) resale.”
By this time next year, the Polestar Australia range will be bolstered further by the arrival of the Porsche Taycan-rivalling PS5 sedan, which is expected to be priced above the PS3 crossover.
“Polestar 5 will be strictly controlled in terms of volume – we are not looking to see it run rampant,” Mr Maynard said.
“It will fill an important role. The start of sales will be in the fourth quarter of 2025 with the start of customer handovers in the first half of 2025.”  Read more |
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