Imagine throwing a party, stocking the fridge with champagne, baking a cake, and… no one shows up. That’s roughly the situation Polestar has just endured in China — except instead of cake, it was electric cars.
The Chinese–Swedish EV brand, co-owned by Volvo and Geely, has decided to pull out of its main market. Yes, the very same market where it builds its cars. The numbers tell the grim tale: in the first half of 2025, Polestar sold just 69 cars in China. That’s not a typo. Sixty-nine. In a country with 1.4 billion people, that’s statistically closer to zero than it is to “doing well.”
April and May were particularly tragic — with zero sales. None. Nada. Polestar might as well have tried selling snow to penguins. Meanwhile, the rest of the world seemed to quite like what they were offering: 30,000 Polestars sold globally in the same period, up 51 percent from last year.
In China, the brand’s physical presence has withered to just one lonely showroom in Shanghai. The online store — once touted as the main sales channel — has also been shut. And attempts to hitch a ride with local retail partners? Missed. Completely.
Currently, Polestar sells three EVs, with three more promised over the next few years. The Polestar 3, which currently rolls out of plants in both China and the US, will soon get a Slovakian production line. Whether the Chinese factories will stay open now that their home market has shown all the enthusiasm of a cat for bath time remains to be seen.
For now, Polestar’s breakup with China is official. They came, they built, they… didn’t sell anything. Sometimes the writing on the wall is in big, neon-lit Chinese characters — and you just have to read it.
Source: Polestar
