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Polestar’s online configurator is no longer accepting new custom Polestar 2 orders, and Polestar says that the reason is because demand is too high for its best-selling vehicle.

Polestar has been having a bit of a rough time lately. While the company’s sales were up 6% in 2023, that’s smaller growth than most of the EV industry has seen. In particular, Polestar’s Q4 numbers ticked down compared to Q3, despite first deliveries of a new model, the Polestar 4, happening in Q4.

Just today, the company received a significant blow as Volvo decided to sever its relationship with Polestar, which was originally spun off from Volvo. This leaves Polestar’s other partner, Geely, and of course Polestar itself, responsible for Polestar’s fate.

However, the Polestar 2 did just get a facelift, and deliveries of that started last quarter. This usually buoys sales of a vehicle line, and often leads to a dropoff in preceding quarters as customers wait for the new version of the car to come out. But between Q3 and Q4, that didn’t happen. Maybe Polestar hasn’t been able to scale production of the facelifted version quickly enough, or maybe customers were just not aware of the facelift, but it’s still odd to see a drop in the quarter that a facelift comes out.

So one might think that things are looking shaky for Polestar, but the company’s order website suggests otherwise.

In recent days, customers have apparently been unable to configure new custom Polestar 2 vehicles in the US. When attempting to do so, Polestar’s configurator website states:

Due to high demand, we are currently closed for new factory orders. Please explore our available cars to find the right one for you.

Then, you can click a button stating “check similar cars for fast delivery” to see whether there are any inventory vehicles which match your order.

Upon checking a few different configurations, there do seem to be a good amount of configurations available, at least in Southern california where I checked.

On the UK site, a slightly different error message appears. Certain configurations will say “Configuration not available for factory order. Compare your configuration with available cars,” but some other configurations show that “fast delivery is available” and give a timeline when selected. Either way, no mention of demand across the pond, even though the effect seems to be about the same.

This isn’t the first time this has happened with an EV, though. Lots of EVs end up getting a lot of preorders, to the point where companies shut down additional orders until they can work through the backlog. Tesla has done this several times in the past, here’s one example from 2022.

We reached out for additional comments, and a Polestar rep told us that it’s “temporary and not related to suppliers or production or anything like that”. So not a lot more detail there, but we do know that, currently, you can’t order a custom Polestar configuration, and will have to either wait until the configurator is reopened, or look for an inventory vehicle instead.

Electrek’s Take

This story is interesting given the constant (and incorrect) media narrative lately that “EV demand is down” – a phrase that was used even in another article we saw covering this very story about demand supposedly being too high for Polestar to fulfill.

This narrative is, in so many words, wrong. EV demand isn’t down, it’s up, and so are EV sales. In order to find any indication of slowing growth in EVs, you have to go to the second derivative of an EV sales chart. It would be more accurate to say that percentage growth of EV sales is lower now than it has been in the past, but that’s a natural result of the base number getting larger – 100 -> 1,000 is a 10x increase, but 1,000 -> 5,000 is merely a 5x increase, despite clearly being a much larger increase in raw volume.

Meanwhile, gas car sales actually are going down, and yet that narrative is not widely reported on. It looks like gas vehicle sales peaked at 2017 and will likely never recover to that level, while EV sales continue to rise.

However, there can be headwinds for certain individual brands (e.g. tax credit availability, NACS support coming but not yet implemented, supply disruptions, and so on). And Polestar is one of the brands that is growing more slowly than others lately, especially when it is relatively smaller in terms of deliveries, and therefore should have an easier time producing higher percentage growth than a larger company might (see the small/large number comparison above).

So it actually is strange to see this notification on Polestar’s website, given the company’s more modest recent growth. We’d like to understand a little more about what kind of numbers we’re dealing with here, but in absence of that it looks like shoppers will just have to scrounge around a bit for the time being to find a car close to what they want.

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Paris’ popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

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Paris' popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.

According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.

“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.

The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.

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The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.

Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.

And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.

The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.

Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.

That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.

The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.

Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.

The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.

Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.

In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.

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CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

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CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a press event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

When they lose a significant other, most men do indeed become a “TRAIN WRECK.” Then they pick up the pieces of their lives and start living again — paying attention to their personal grooming, hitting the gym and discovering new hobbies.

What does the world’s richest man do? He starts a political party.

Last weekend, as the United States celebrated its independence from the British in 1776, Elon Musk enshrined his sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump by establishing the creatively named “American Party.”

Few details have been revealed, but Musk said the party will focus on “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” and will have legislative discussions “with both parties” — referring to the U.S. Democratic and Republican Parties.

It might be easier to realize Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars than to bridge the political aisle in the U.S. government today.

To be fair, some thought appeared to be behind the move. Musk decided to form the party after holding a poll on X in which 65.4% of respondents voted in favor.

Folks, here’s direct democracy — and the powerful post-separation motivation — in action.

 — CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

And finally…

An investor sits in front of a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China.

Thomas Peter | Reuters

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CNBC Daily Open: Most people don’t start a political party after separation

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CNBC Daily Open: Most people don't start a political party after separation

US President Donald Trump, right, and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, May 30, 2025.

Francis Chung | Bloomberg | Getty Images

When they find themselves without a significant other, most men finally start living: They pay attention to their personal grooming, hit the gym and discover new hobbies.

What does the world’s richest man do? He starts a political party.

Last weekend, as the United States celebrated its independence from the British in 1776, Elon Musk enshrined his sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump by establishing the creatively named “American Party.”

Few details have been revealed, but Musk said the party will focus on “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” and will have legislative discussions “with both parties” — referring to the U.S. Democratic and Republican Parties.

It might be easier to realize Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars than to bridge the political aisle in the U.S. government today.

To be fair, some thought appeared to be behind the move. Musk decided to form the party after holding a poll on X in which 65.4% of respondents voted in favor.

Folks, here’s direct democracy — and the powerful post-separation motivation — in action.

 — CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

Trump confirms tariffs will kick in Aug. 1. That postpones the deadline by a month, but tariffs could “boomerang” back to April levels for countries without deals. Trump on Friday said letters with “take it or leave it” offers will go out to 12 countries Monday.

U.S. stock futures slipped Sunday. Despite the White House pushing back the return of “reciprocal” tariffs, some investors could be worried trade negotiations would result in higher-than-expected duties. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index dropped 0.48% Friday.

OPEC+ members to increase oil output. Eight members of the alliance agreed on Saturday to hike their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, around 100,000 more than expected.

Elon Musk forms a new political party. On Saturday, the world’s richest man said he has formed a new U.S. political party named the “American Party,” which he claims will give Americans “back your freedom.”

[PRO] Wall Street is growing cautious on European equities. As investors seek shelter from tumult in U.S., the Stoxx 600 index has risen 6.6% year to date. Analysts, however, think the foundations of that growth could be shaky.

And finally…

Ayrton Senna driving the Marlboro McLaren during the Belgian Grand Prix in 1992.

Pascal Rondeau | Hulton Archive | Getty Images

The CEO mindset is shifting. It’s no longer all about winning

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/06/the-ceo-mindset-is-shifting-its-no-longer-all-about-winning.html

CEOs today aren’t just steering companies — they’re navigating a minefield. From geopolitical shocks and economic volatility to rapid shifts in tech and consumer behavior, the playbook for leadership is being rewritten in real time.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC earlier this week, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown outlined a leadership approach centered on urgency, momentum and learning from failure. 

— Spriha Srivastava

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