Boss says popular EV will be replaced by the 7 – and plays down Volvo funding fears
FELIX PAGE
The Polestar 2 won’t be directly replaced by a like-for-like successor when it reaches the end of its planned life, instead being succeeded by a substantially different new car called the 7.
Since arriving in 2020 as the Geely-owned Swedish brand’s second production car, the electric liftback has topped 150,000 sales in 26 markets worldwide, and it was recently extensively updated with new drivetrain configurations and technical functionality.
The 2 is expected to reach the end of its life in around 2027, but Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath has revealed that the firm “will not replace the Polestar 2 with a Polestar 2”, hinting at a radical reinvention for what has been one of the world’s best-selling electric cars of the past four years.
“It will be the Polestar 7,” he said, confirming that the brand will continue with its chronological model naming strategy beyond the launch of the 6 supercar in 2026.
At this early stage, Ingenlath wasn’t willing to share details of what the 2’s replacement could look like, saying: “What type of car and how we will do it, we can discuss when it’s time.”
Ingenlath did suggest that it would be comparably positioned to the 2 and occupy the same position in Polestar’s line-up, but he stressed that launching generation after generation of the same car can impose limitations and stifle innovation.
“As much as we might build a very similar car, because it has a different number we won’t have this natural trap where we’re boxed into that concept of what the car had been,” said Ingenlath.
“As nice as it is to have a [Volkswagen] ‘Golf’ category of car, it’s very limiting in terms of innovative power, because you’re always back in the box of what the ‘Golf’ should be.
“At some point, you get into a strange situation when you’re in double-digit generations and it gets really questionable.”
The 7 is set to swap from the Volvo-derived Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) that underpins the 2 onto a new EV-specific platform from another brand in the Geely group – most likely a variation of the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) that underpins the Polestar 4.
That slightly larger electric crossover offers up to 379 miles of range, can charge at rates of up to 200kW and gets from 0-62mph in as little as
