Improvements and alterations, but prices have risen.

HAVING exhausted supply of original format cars, Polestar’s distributor has now shifted focus to taking orders for the updated version of its popular sedan.

The MY2023 Polestar 2 brings enhancements but also price increases, though two single motor variants retain eligibility for the Clean Car rebate of $8625.

In all there are seven variants, of which two are dual motor, with pricing ranging from $76,900 to $114,990. The previous car began at $69,900 and topped at $93,900, but there were fewer variants.

The increases reflect across the whole range with new colours, wheel designs and upholstery options, plus various other improvements – some aiming to improve the model’s environmental standing.

Though some amendments bring specification improvements, in previous international comment Polestar has said increases in production, material and logistics costs have also influenced.

Buyers of the top-end long range dual motor who option the Performance Pack now access a Polestar Engineered Performance Software upgrade which delivers an added 50kW and 20Nm to the dual-motor version. This raises output to 350kW, dropping the cited 0-100kmh time to just 4.4 seconds.

The marque, a spin-off from Sweden’s Volvo and also owned by China’s Geely, is ramping up to produce on a second model, also destined for New Zealand.

The new Polestar 3 is a sports utility larger in size than the sedan. It will be unveiled in October, before deliveries start in the first quarter of 2023.

Polestar NZ has not said when the car will be here, but expectation is that Kiwis will see it before the end of next year.

Polestar mentioned the reveal date as part of its most recent earnings report, in which it also announced that it had achieved record sales in the first four months of the year, despite ongoing supply-chain issues.

It sold 13,600 cars from January to April, 2022, almost double its quarter one sales from 2021. Meanwhile, its order take reached 23,000, more than triple its figure from the first quarter of 2021.