Just a few months ago, Polestar had major ambitions for a reboot. Now it’s winding down operations in America.
Just a few weeks ago, Volvo Cars announced it secured authorization from the U.S. government to continue selling its cars, as it nearly faced a total ban from the market due to its subsidiary status under Chinese-owned Geely Holding. That same rule is taking down Polestar, as it turns out, as the company announced Thursday it would wind down operations in the American market. Instead, it’s going to focus on Europe for its prospective growth moving forward.
“This follows a decision from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security to not grant Polestar an authorization under the current Connected Vehicle Rule to sell vehicles in the U.S. from model year 2027 onwards,” the company said in its official statement. The Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 will still be available in the current 2026 form while supplies last, and Polestar did say it would “continue to support customers, including providing access to its service network.”
The 32 Polestar dealers across America will continue to sell existing inventory, as well as maintain service departments and sell used vehicles, at least for the foreseeable future. Other parts of Polestar’s 100-strong workforce, like marketing, will drop off in the coming months as the company ceases the rest of its operations in the U.S.
Finally, perhaps to soften the blow of that announcement, Polestar mentions that “94% of [Q1 2026’s] retail sales volumes originated from markets outside the U.S.” That indirectly concedes that the brand was still struggling to gain a foothold in the market, irrespective of the government’s decision to effectively ban new Polestar sales to American customers. Nevertheless, while Volvo is currently safe, we can’t help but wonder whether that situation — including the automaker’s Charleston, South Carolina plant with around 2,000 employees — may meet the same fate at some point.
