Polestar shelves roadster 6 to work on new 7 and 2

The Polestar 6 sportscar is now sidelined as the brand works on its new 7 crossover and a replacement for its popular 2 liftback.

Development of the Polestar 6 electric sports car is deferred as it prioritises higher-volume models.

Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller said the company’s priority now is to enter the compact SUV segment in Europe with the new 7. This will make the brand more accessible on price and give Polestar the biggest volume potential to date.

Polestar has also been working hard on the next-generation 2 sedan. The original has been the Sino-Swede’s brand’s most successful model to date.

These two volume-oriented models are crucial in rebuilding Polestar’s fortunes as the brand moves to a more conventional sales model.

Polestar still intends to make the 6 sportster in the future. That model will use a new bespoke architecture it shares with the 5 saloon just revealed at the Munich IAA show.

However, building volume in Europe is key to Polestar’s recovery. More than three-quarters of Polestar vehicles sell in Europe, with the UK its single biggest market.

Polestar hopes to attract younger customers to the brand with the smaller 7 SUV and also more female owners. At present, Polestar “is quite a performance brand” with way more male than female clients.

Read our review of the Polestar 3 Long Range.

The design of the upcoming SUV will be quite different from Polestar’s existing models, with a more familiar SUV shape. It will however, stand out in the way the 5 does against its competitors.

As to whether Polestar models will ever use hybrid drivetrains, that’s unlikely. For it would go against the brand’s electric-only positioning to date and the customer base wouldn’t tolerate it.