The Volvo / Polestar relationship has always been complicated — as Volvo CEO Jim Rowan explained to me on Decoder last year, Volvo owns 48 percent of EV maker Polestar, Rowan sits on Polestar’s board, and both companies share tech and platforms with Volvo’s majority owner Geely — but it’s getting a little simpler, as Volvo announced it won’t be funding Polestar directly anymore. (Geely says it will, though. So, still complicated.)
The WSJ frames this as EV market noise, but Volvo is just about to start delivery of the new EX30 EV which seems like a hit, and Polestar just announced the 4, so maybe it’s just sibling rivalry. After all, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told me in 2021 that “we will always be some kind of family, but of course we will develop our own life.”
