Bold, distinctive and a major break from the norm. No, not the Polestar 1 – although the Volvo spin-off’s first car certainly qualifies for most of those – but how you buy it.
Click here for more on the all-new Polestar 1
By offering its cars online via a flat monthly subscription, Polestar has broken away from the old-school, dealer-focused method of selling cars and adopted the model used to great success by the likes of Netflix, Spotify and even bikes in London. Other car firms have experimented with such offerings, but Polestar will be the first brand to exist largely as an online-only firm.
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Are car enthusiasts ready to buy cars online via a monthly flat rate? Well, why not? Most of us are fully prepared to shop online and have become used to paying monthly fees and never really owning anything. Why should a car be any different? Especially when you cut the need to haggle over pricing and your flat fee removes the cost of paying for servicing and so on – as well as the hugely useful ability to briefly trade your sports GT for a bigger Volvo.
Polestar can only do this because of its links to Volvo, giving it access to that firm’s after-sales servicing network. In other words, while you might never have to visit one, there’s still a need for dealers.
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What we know
A XC40 is £629.00 for a month's subscription. Almost all people who can afford this can afford and do own a car and pay the £60 tax, £300 insurance, £150 servicing a year (3 weeks worth of subs). If you were to get a subscription for 3 years it would be £22,500 on a car valued at £28,000, not a wise move.
If you only want a car for the odd month because your car's being repaired then maybe (but Hertz might be better), other than that like 95% of people I can see no point in it.
XC40 example
Volvo price the XC40 subscription at £629.00 a month, how I laughed. P1 £1,000 a month anyone?
You're really not comparing
You're really not comparing like with like and I suspect you know it. And I don't mean the vehicles, but the terms of the package.
Let's just conveniently ignore costs for tax, insurance, servicing, concierge service (and there are people who will happily pay for that) to make a crappy point. I'm sure that doesn't cost much for a P1....
Having a coupe and being able to swap it sounds good...
It would be helpful to get a XC60 for the handful of time a year I have other family members etc in the car with me. However it would also be great if you could swap a Polestar 1 for a Lotus Elise on a sunny day or an Evora when you just want some more B road fun. I could see it happening now they are all under one roof....
Sadly I doubt I could afford the subscription costs though! Which is a shame as I think it is very desirable car and package.
Also be interesting to see what the demand will be for the refurbished car.