The car which accounts for four in five Polestars on global roads will be renewed for a second iteration, but it appears at least three years away.
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The maiden electric vehicle from Volvo EV spin-off Polestar will be replaced by a new model that, contrary to earlier reports, will retain the Polestar 2 name.
It is set to remain a lower-slung proposition than the taller Polestar 3 and 4, though Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller would not confirm if it would keep the 'liftback' sedan body style.
"Let's word it like this: I want to have those current Polestar 2 customers back," Lohscheller told Australian media in Munich this month.
"I want to have those, because we built it up [the customer base]. I think we did a great job, and I want to keep them in the family."
Arrival timing is yet to be confirmed. It is planned to follow the Polestar 7 small SUV due in early 2028, but it's yet to be announced if it will precede the Polestar 6 supercar formerly slated for 2026, but now delayed indefinitely.
The vast majority of the circa-220,000 Polestar vehicles sold globally are Polestar 2s, approximately 6300 of which went to customers in Australia.
"No, that's important because we have set it up so successfully," Lohscheller said when asked if the new Polestar 2 would change its name.
"It has, as I said, 180,000 customers at the moment, right? There will be a Polestar 2 successor, for sure. For sure."
Asked if it will keep the concept of the vehicle similar, the Polestar boss said: "We will develop things further, right? We will not just do the same thing as in the past, but more to come on that, I would say."
Lohscheller's predecessor in the top Polestar job, former Volvo design boss Thomas Ingenlath, told Drive 18 months ago that "we will not replace a Polestar 2 with a Polestar 2," and said new-generation models would not wear the same number "a little bit as a philosophy."
Questioned on whether the decision to keep the Polestar 2 name is a backflip, Lohscheller claimed that it has always been the plan.
"No, and I think it's very consistent. ... Polestar 2 will have a successor, because it goes back to that car. If it was a new [type of] car, then we could argue 'is that a Polestar 8', but that's not the case.
"And that I mean indicates that we obviously want to keep the Polestar 2 customers, right? But no, no, there will be a successor."
He refuted suggestions that Polestar's current naming structure – which is based on when vehicles are announced, rather than their size – is confusing, telling media, "that's not what customers worry about".
Few details of the new Polestar 2 are known at this stage, given it may be three or more years away, but the executive told the UK's Autocar earlier this year it would use a new platform destined for all future Polestars.
The fresh underpinnings are also destined for the Polestar 7, and given the two are likely to be similar in size, there is a fair chance the new sedan could be built on the SUV's production line in Slovakia.
Electric power will be the only choice, with Lohscheller telling reporters: "Our customers are very adamant about that, they say 'don't do hybrids'."
The original Polestar 2 began life as the Volvo Concept 40.2, and progressed part-way into the development of a production version before it was switched to the Polestar brand.
Polestar head of product attributes, Christian Samson, told Drive last year it "never really fitted in" with the Volvo range, but was a "perfect match for Polestar".
Since its global launch in 2020, Polestar has continually updated the car, including new batteries, tweaked styling, and a major shift from front- to rear-wheel drive for Model Year 2024.
Lohscheller refuted suggestions that the vehicle is getting old, and is in need of major updates in the coming years to bridge the gap to the next-generation model.
"I'm not sure if I would agree with that statement," the CEO said.
"Of course, every car gets older, but if I look at the competition, what the features are, how it performs, I would say [Polestar 2] is absolutely up to date, especially also with the latest model year changes we did.
"So we compete very, very successfully with Polestar 2, I would say, in all our key markets."
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Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
