Volvo Plans First Polestar EV Retail Outlet

Volvo’s Polestar electric-vehicle brand will open a new retail outlet concept, the Polestar Space, in Oslo, Norway, by the middle of 2019.

The store will be the first to show Polestar’s approach to selling vehicles to an audience interested in alternatively fueled cars. It will be the first of about 60 Polestar Spaces set to open worldwide by mid-2020.

Located in downtown Oslo, the Polestar Space will be situated among other “progressive” brand stores in a prominent retail environment. The automaker will offer a digital retail experience it claims will allow customers to complete the whole buying process online.

For more-traditional car buyers, however, the Polestar Space will enable customers to meet and quiz the brand’s experts, see cars in person and take a test drive. These stores will be staffed not by hard-selling sales persons but by non-commissioned product experts.

Polestar Spaces will be built on the design concept Polestar is developing in its retail lab environment in Gothenburg, Sweden.

 “Polestar will redefine the vehicle ownership experience and the relationship customers have with their car manufacturer,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath says. “As Norway is one of the world’s most important electric-vehicle markets, it is logical to begin the Polestar Space story in Oslo.

 “We are working on signing up a number of other Polestar Spaces locations around the world,” he adds.