Polestar boldly claims it will ‘outsell’ Elon Musk’s Tesla
Tesla is facing heat from Swedish competitor Polestar, who have declared that they will surpass the sales of the biggest EV brand in the world.
Swedish EV manufacturer Polestar has slapped down the gauntlet to the world’s richest and loudest man, Elon Musk, by boldly declaring it will outsell Tesla, the biggest EV brand on the planet.
Polestar overtaking Tesla as the number one EV brand is merely a matter of time, according to Polestar’s global head of sales, Mike Whittington.
“Yes, we expect to sell more cars than Tesla, but it depends when. Once we expand our range there is a real opportunity to grow our volume significantly,” Mr Whittington told an Australian media event.
The Australian launch of the Polestar 3 large SUV was also confirmed for 2023, to be followed in subsequent years by the Polestar 4 small SUV and Polestar 5 GT. At present, Tesla sells just one car locally, the hugely popular Model 3 sedan.
“We’ve got three new cars over the next three years and we‘ve been very clear on our growth aspirations,” Whittington added. “It’s not a race against Tesla, but we see big growth ahead.”
“First we want to build the brand and build the customer experience. We won‘t do that at the cost of just trying to get volume, because we want to grow and move towards sustainable electrification by putting EVs on the road.”
There are some early indicators to back-up Whittington’s bold claim, with the brand’s first EV to hit the Australian market, the Polestar 2 (from $59,000, plus on-road costs), outselling market leader the Tesla Model 3 (from $63,900, plus on-road costs) in April, two months after launch, with the Polestar selling 93 units to the Tesla’s 52.
It’s a small win for Volvo-offshoot Polestar, which still lagged considerably behind Tesla in the first quarter of 2022 (the Model 3 sold 4417 units, while the Polestar sold 2115), although the Polestar 2 only went on sale in late February.
Whittington said Polestar was seeing a global surge in demand that had it on track to achieve its goal of selling 290,000 vehicles by 2025. Although, even that figure would still be a way off Tesla’s global numbers.
Tesla sold 936,222 cars in 2021, an 87 per cent increase over the previous year, which brings the EV titan’s cumulative global sales total to 2.3 million cars as of the end of 2021. Much of Tesla’s success has been achieved in a market in which it had very few real competitors, of course.
Chinks have also been starting to show in Tesla’s armour, however, with approximately $790 billion – the total worth of the next five largest car makers combined – wiped from the brand’s valuation since November 2021, leaving Tesla worth “just” $930 billion, a 45.7 per cent decrease from a peak of $US1.72 trillion.
Unfavourable market conditions and delivery delays may account for some of the drop, but a number of other controversies surrounding the brand haven’t helped, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s controversial $61 billion bid to buy Twitter, and vehicle recalls due to overheating screens.
The so-far controversy-free Polestar is focusing on building brand awareness, with its Australian managing director, Samantha Johnson, stating that things are looking bright for the EV upstarts locally.
“Sales are definitely where we want them to be,” said Ms Johnson. “Demand has been a lot higher than anticipated.
“We’re seeing a real shift in mentality, a boost in EV demand. Those waitlists are starting to grow.”
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