Currently reading: Polestar boss: 80% of customers like oddball features

Swedish EV brand designs divisive but memorable cars, says CEO Michael Lohscheller

Polestar is happy to have polarising features on its cars as a way of standing out against the competition.

These include the likes of the lack of rear window on the Polestar 4, which instead has a camera to give the driver a digital rear view.

At the recent Munich motor show, CEO Michael Lohscheller told Autocar: "80% of the customers get used to very quickly and then they like it – but I will say there are also people who don't like it.

"So in a way, the car is polarising, which sometimes is really, really good, because you don't want a car that is 'kind of all right'. 

"Everybody has a 'kind of all right' car, but you want a very specific car. That's what the Polestar 4 is doing: there are people who drive it and love it, then there are 20% who say 'it's absolutely not for me'.

"But that's okay; it's totally okay. We don't want a car where everybody says, 'well, I kind of like it'. No, you have to love it or not.

"So I think actually [the 4] is an exceptionally successful [design]."

Lohscheller said the new Polestar 5 continued the trend for the Swedish brand of "making a statement" in its positioning and execution.

It also continued a trend for Polestar in being based on a different platform to other models in the range, meaning all five Polestars to date have been built on different underpinnings.

Lohscheller said that trend would change and the brand "would harmonise over time" and launch more related models. 

The European-built Polestar 7 smaller SUV and next-generation Polestar 2 are likely to be the first to share a platform.

"The more you standardise, the better your quality," Lohscheller added.

More broadly on European production, Lohscheller said it will reduce Polestar's CO2 footprint by bringing local production to its largest market. It will also allow it to get its cars to customers quicker in the UK, its biggest single market. 

He remains committed to the brand's 'asset-light' business model, which means sourcing platforms, technology and factories in which to build cars from other companies.

This will be "the future of the automotive industry", according to Lohscheller, in order for car companies to be more efficient and leverage more from each other.

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Lohscheller was speaking just days after Polestar posted a quarterly loss of more than $1 billion, including a write-down cost in excess of $700 million on the US-built Polestar 3, due to the impacts of weaker than expected sales and US trade tariffs.

He insisted his focus is on the operational business and said that revenue growth of 56%, a positive gross margin for the first time and reduced costs are signs that Polestar is heading in the right direction in terms of establishing itself as a profitable business.

"The underlying operational business clearly improved in the first half of the year," he said. "That's good to see."

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Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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289 18 September 2025

80% of not very many owners isnt really significant enough to base a survey on, is it?

Polestar may be 'happy to have polarising features on their cars', but given current performance in the market- Polestar dont appear to be taking the customer with them.

I predict that unless a miracle shows-up, Polestar wont be around next year. Geely wont be prepared to cover losses of that order much longer....(along with Lotus as well).

Deputy 18 September 2025

I'm a big fan of tech but even I don't like the digital rear view mirrors. Your eyes have to refocus whereas a mirror doesn't need require a refocus. It's tiring on a long drive. There is a reason fighter jets head up displays are focussed at infinity. So maybe if digital mirrors did the same it could work. Still limited depth perception though. 

Stroudley 18 September 2025

Absolutely. I tried one once and it was hopeless due to the focussing issue. And as you get older your eye focussing slows down.