Polestar reported second-quarter retail sales of 17,296 cars on Thursday, a 4% decline from 18,026 vehicles in the same period last year, as the Swedish electric vehicle maker faces a ban from the U.S. market starting with the 2027 model year.
For the first half of 2026, Polestar's retail sales totaled 30,423 cars, up 0.4% from 30,289 in the first half of 2025, the company said. Excluding a subset of sales the company tracks separately, the half-year figure rose 3.1% to 28,562 vehicles, while second-quarter sales on that basis fell 3.9% to 16,175 cars.
CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a statement that the company's retail network now stands at 235 sites, a 39% increase compared to last year. "The first customer deliveries of Polestar 5 are set to start and production of the Polestar 4 SUV has started, with first deliveries expected during the fourth quarter," he said.
The U.S. market exit stems from the Commerce Department's Connected Vehicle Rule, which restricts vehicles with Chinese software or hardware from American roads. Authorization to continue U.S. sales was granted to Volvo Cars, a sister brand, about a month before Polestar — majority-owned by China's Geely Holding — had its own request denied, Reuters reported. The software ban takes effect with the 2027 model year, while a hardware ban follows in 2030.
In the U.S., existing stock of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 will remain available for purchase, the company said, and customers will retain access to its service network; sales of used vehicles will also go on.
The company announced its U.S. exit in late June, noting at the time that 94% of its first-quarter retail sales came from outside the U.S. and that it was redirecting commercial efforts toward Europe. Polestar stock fell more than 13% on the day of that announcement.
The sales figures arrive against a backdrop of mounting financial pressure. As disclosed in May, Polestar posted a first-quarter net loss of $383 million — more than double its $166 million loss in the same period a year earlier — as U.S. and European Union tariffs combined with pricing pressure drove its gross margin to negative 3.2%, down from positive 10.3% a year earlier. Faced with tariff headwinds, Polestar's strategy has shifted toward updating its current lineup rather than introducing new models from scratch, Reuters reported.