Polestar 2 successor arriving end of decade

The Polestar 2 electric vehicle will get a direct successor that will appear toward the end of the decade, CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a recent interview with Autocar.

With last week’s announcement of the Polestar 7 small SUV, it’s easy to assume this model will effectively replace the Polestar 2 electric hatchback as the entry-level vehicle in the EV brand’s lineup. But Lohscheller said that won’t be the case, telling Autocar that Polestar will aim for a six-model lineup with the next-generation 2 and the new 7 sandwiching the Polestar 3 and 4 SUVs, the Polestar 5 fastback, and the Polestar 6 sports car.

This aligns with what Green Car Reports was told about the fate of the current-generation Polestar 2, which was reduced to one configuration for the 2025 model year. That seemed like an indication the hatchback would be killed off soon, but Polestar said it remained committed to keeping it in the lineup. So perhaps the current-generation Polestar 2 will stick around long enough for the redesigned model to arrive.

That redesigned model will use a new architecture debuting with the Polestar 7 that will serve as the basis for all future Polestar models, and will arrive sometime after the 7, Lohscheller noted. Polestar hasn’t said exactly when that SUV will arrive.

And while the current Polestar 2 is assembled in China, Autocar reports that the new version will be built in Europe, likely at parent company Geely’s new plant in Slovakia. That would also make U.S. importation easier should the Trump Administration follow through on its threat of even steeper tariffs than the ones already imposed by the Biden Administration on Chinese-made EVs.

While not confirmed for the U.S., a future Europe-built Polestar 2 would require less effort to sell here at a commercially-viable price than the Polestar 4. Polestar originally planned to build this model in China, but then shifted production for the North American market to a Renault plant in South Korea to get around U.S. trade policies that penalize China-manufactured EVs.