Polestar has sold an estimated 44,790 cars through the first nine months of 2026, a nine-month record for the Swedish EV brand. The third quarter came in at an estimated 14,371 units, also a company best for that period. Both figures sit roughly 1 percent above the year-ago pace, a number that looks a lot less impressive once you remember where Polestar’s growth was running just 12 months ago.
Through the first half of 2026, Polestar had sold 30,423 cars globally, up 0.4 percent from the same period in 2025. The full nine-month figure extends that pattern without changing it. What the headline number does not say is how hard the non-U.S. markets are working to stay even. Retail sales excluding the American business fell 8 percent year-over-year in the third quarter alone, to 12,211 units. For the nine months, ex-U.S. volume came in at 40,773 cars, essentially flat with the 40,968 posted over the same stretch of 2025. The U.S. business, now excluded from Polestar’s core reporting following connected-vehicle regulatory action by U.S. authorities, is the only reason the total line reads positive at all.
The deceleration is the more telling story. Nine-month sales in 2025 rose 36 percent over the same period in 2024. Third-quarter 2025 was up 13 percent over Q3 2024. The equivalent figures for 2026 are 0.6 percent and 1 percent. A brand that was growing at double-digit rates is now growing at a rate indistinguishable from rounding error, and doing it against a backdrop of 39 percent retail network expansion through July, to 235 sites. More doors open, nearly identical volume moving through them.
CEO Michael Lohscheller cited “increasingly challenging market conditions” and pointed to two product developments as the path forward. The Polestar 5 has begun customer deliveries, the brand’s first proper performance GT and its highest-priced model. The Polestar 4 SUV, separate from the coupé-crossover variant already in the lineup, is now available and aimed at the D-SUV segment, which Polestar describes as the largest and most dynamic part of the European premium EV market. Whether two new models moving volume in Q4 can shift the trajectory is the question the full-year number will answer.
Polestar has not shared a volume or revenue breakdown between the coupé and SUV variants of the Polestar 4, nor has it committed to a full-year sales target for 2026.
Looking further out, the product calendar is the company’s clearest bullish argument. A Polestar 2 successor is scheduled for 2027. The Polestar 7 compact SUV arrives in 2028, with European manufacturing planned. The Polestar 6 roadster is also on the roadmap. A brand that currently runs five models in 31 markets is adding a compact SUV entry point at the one end and a roadster at the other, attacking the premium EV market from both directions. The logic is sound. The execution, against a backdrop of flat international demand and a U.S. market that is effectively closed, will be harder.
Polestar noted that 2026 retail figures are estimated and subject to revision. The 2025 figures used for comparison are final.
Record sales built on 1 percent growth and a shrinking international base is a milestone worth noting, but not one worth celebrating.
Source: Polestar. Images courtesy of Polestar.
