Polestar is preparing to stop selling new cars in the United States, and a video from The Electric Viking lays out why. According to the video, Polestar has told dealers that a US rule on Chinese-linked connected-vehicle technology means it will not receive certification to sell for the 2027 model year and beyond. The video reports the rule was adopted in January 2025 and has been carried forward since, and that the US Department of Commerce declined to grant Polestar an exemption. Polestar is majority owned by China's Geely, and the same video notes that sister brand Volvo, also Geely-owned, was cleared to keep importing, a contrast that has left dealers and observers asking why the two outcomes differ.
The connected-vehicle rule at the center of this predates the current situation. The video describes it as barring vehicles with certain Chinese-linked Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular and satellite systems on national-security grounds, tied to concerns about data collected on US owners. What the video adds is the practical fallout for a small brand: it reports Polestar runs about 32 US dealerships, most of which would shift to servicing existing cars rather than selling new ones.
For US shoppers, the immediate effect is narrow, because the video says Polestar will keep selling remaining Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 inventory and will continue service. The bigger picture is a company already leaning on Europe. The video reports Europe accounted for 78 percent of Polestar's first-quarter sales against 6 percent from the US, cites the CEO describing Europe as the brand's main growth engine with the Polestar 7 planned for European production, and notes Polestar completed a reverse stock split last year while drawing capital from Geely. Canada, the video says, is not affected for now.
Most of the video is dealer reaction, and it is not happy. It quotes retailers describing the decision as devastating and a shock, and reports concern that Polestar had assured them for years it would stay compliant. One dealer is described as sitting on a 76-day supply of unsold cars, and another says the remaining stores will largely become service centers for existing customers. The chair of Polestar's dealer board is quoted calling the move a shock, and the video makes the point that this is stranger than a normal automotive collapse: the company keeps operating, yet its US retailers are left with cars they can no longer replace and no clear path to sell what a wind-down leaves behind.
The video also raises the obvious comparison: why did Volvo, with similar Chinese ownership, get authorization when Polestar did not, a question it says has no clear public answer yet. Toward the end, the host offers his own theory, pointing to another automaker whose cars he says are not connected to the internet and therefore cannot transmit data, and suggesting Polestar might have avoided the ban by closing its cars off the same way. Some dealers in the video argue the company could have complied and chose not to. That part is presented as opinion and speculation rather than confirmed fact, and the video says Polestar's US leadership had not commented.
Bottom line: If you own a Polestar, this is not a fire drill: service continues and existing inventory is still for sale. If you were considering one, the harder question is resale and long-term support in a market the brand is exiting. The Volvo contrast is the part worth watching, because it suggests the rule is being applied brand-by-brand rather than banning owners outright, which leaves a door open if Polestar changes its hardware. For now, though, a brand that never cracked the US market is being pushed out of it, and the dealers who bet on it are the ones absorbing the hit.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.