Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar said on Monday it plans to enter the French market this summer, utilizing an agency distribution model. The company announced last week that it plans to increase its retail network from 106 to 187 locations over the next two years.
In France, Polestar will leverage several existing Volvo locations across the country to establish its presence while adding new showrooms across the country. The Geely-backed brand is currently available in 27 countries worldwide.
The French market will be led by Stéphane Le Guevel from next month, a former Opel executive who has been managing Polestar’s Spanish and Portuguese markets since 2022.
In 2024, 291,143 BEVs were registered in France, accounting for 16.9% of the market, a slight 0.1 percentage point increase compared to 2023. The passenger car market totalled 1,718,416 units, a decline of 3.17% YoY.
In 2025, the French government will reduce its EV subsidy budget from €1.5 billion to €1 billion. Subsidies for new fully electric cars will decrease to between €2,000 and €4,000, compared to the current range of €4,000 to €7,000.
“A new progressive scale will determine the subsidy amount based on household income,” according tothe European Commission. “Households in the first five income groups will receive €4,000, those in groups 6 to 8 will receive €3,000, and those in groups 9 and 10 will receive €2,000.”
Polestar said last week it sold 12,256 vehicles in the last quarter of 2024, taking last year’s figures to 44,851 units. In 2023, the company had sold 52,796 vehicles.
A year ago, in January 2024, the company said it “delivered approximately 12,800 cars in the fourth quarter of 2023.” However, on Thursday’s report, the company informed that it has switched its metrics from ‘vehicle deliveries’ to ‘retail sales’ which avoids a year-over-year decline.
Measuring retail sales, Polestar said it increased year over year from 11,640 to 12,256 vehicles in Q4 2024 — a growth of 5.3%. Two years ago, in the last quarter of 2022, the EV maker reported 20,243 retail sales.
In 2024, total retail sales fell 15% to 44,851 units from 52,796. The EV maker said that the total order intake in the last quarter of 2024 “increased by 37.2% versus Q4 2023 and by 37.9% for the full year 2024 versus 2023.”
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
