The final teaser video for the Polestar 1 contained a list of pronouncements about what the car, and Volvo’s new performance brand, weren’t going to do.
Among the listing: no smoke and mirrors. No buzzwords. No center ground. No overpromising. No compromises.
Turns out they missed one. No right-hand drive.
That’s right: Polestar’s stylish-looking hot hybrid halo car will, at least initially, be only available with the steering wheel on the left. Which isn’t great news for us Brits, among others. You’ll still be able to buy – sorry, take out a subscription for - the Polestar 1 in the UK, of course, but you’ll have to make do with the steering wheel on the wrong side.
Parochial? Maybe a little. But the UK has been a disproportionately strong market for Grand Tourers like the Polestar 1 and was cited as one of the brand’s major markets. Is not offering a version suited to each market, well, a bit of a compromise?
It was left to Polestar’s British COO, Jonathan Goodman, to explain. And, admirably, his answer contained no smoke and mirrors, and no overpromising. It also contained, we would like to add, no bulls***.
?It?S an engineering value, that?S the sincere answer,? He said. ?You?Re not going to get me to sit down here and say it?S the proper component to do - it would be a piece bizarre coming from an Englishman to say I don?T think we ought to have [right-hand drive].
?We?Re building 500 motors a 12 months [initially], so we?Ve got to be realistic about how we try this. It?S no longer excluded the destiny - one of the things we want to do is placed stress to see if we will get more production extent, which is a opportunity. That will rely upon possibilities inside the future.?
Goodman added that the Polestar 2 and 3 – which will feature five-figure annual production runs - will both come with right-hand drive from the start.
It’s an honest answer – which included no overpromising - and a fair one. At this time, Polestar still numbers just 100 employees and construction has yet to start on its production facility in Chendgu, China. Pushing through a right-hand conversion with limited resources could result in a compromised product. It’s just a shame that, if the Polestar 1 delivers on the promise it shows, anyone buying one in Britain will have to make a compromise to do so.
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