Polestar 1 coupe production could increase to meet demand

After Polestar showed its upcoming halo coupe at Geneva this week, more information is trickling out. It's the first time the brand has had a standalone stand at the show, too.

The Polestar 1 can be ordered from next week on, with a deposit of €2,500, or $3,000. When the coupe was announced, the production number was mentioned as a limited run of 1,500 cars, all built in Chengdu, China. However, AutoExpress reports there have been 6,000 interested buyers so far, according to Polestar's chief operating officer Jon Goodman. To satisfy even half of the buyer candidates, the production run would have to be doubled, but Goodman told AutoExpress that could "easily" be done.

The level of interest comes as no surprise, as the coupe has been long-awaited, from the time its shape was first shown as the Volvo Concept Coupe in 2013. The Polestar 1 will be the brand's lone hybrid; the other models will be pure EVs.

Even as Polestar starts taking deposits, there is still no confirmation on the halo car's  price — or whether there even is an actual purchase price. AutoExpress says the final price for the all-wheel-drive, 592-horsepower plug-in hybrid could be as much as €150,000, or over $185,000.

However, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Autoblog at Geneva that the brand will rely on subscription services. As in: "Polestar will be subscription service, 100 percent," says Ingenlath. "We will not rely on big dealerships. Our communications with our customers will be direct, and our digital hub will connect with our customers directly. Of course we will have small Polestar spaces — downtown, not in every town but in the metropoles of the world. And we plan for customer-ordered production, not the other way around."

You may recall back in the fall, when the Polestar subscription model was first reported, it was described as an "all-inclusive, no deposit, flat monthly payment." That payment will include insurance, car rental services when the car is being worked on, and insurance. After a fixed term of two or three years, the car will go back to Polestar for refurbishment, and it'll again be made available for customers to use on another "pre-owned" subscription term.

Then after some confused messaging from Polestar, the brand tried to clarify, indicating the door might possibly be open to buying one outright if you really wanted to. Press manager Johan Meissner told Autoblog: "If you wish to understand the cost of a Polestar 1, purely for competitor comparative reasons, the indicative target price would be in the region of 130-150,000 Euros. If a customer wanted to purchase the car outright, this is something that we would assess nearer the time."

So how does that all square with Ingenlath's statement in Geneva that the car will be offered "100 percent" by subscription? Since that's the latest word and it's coming straight from the boss, we'll take that as gospel. Until we hear otherwise.

So the bigger question going forward will be: How much is the subscription? And to get the eventual answer to that, it sounds like step one is that $3,000 deposit.