Polestar stops accepting custom Polestar 2 orders because demand is too high
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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If you’re considering going electric, May will be a great time to score a deal on an EV lease. Automakers are slashing lease prices on some of the most popular EVs to move inventory – here are four standouts.
Nissan Ariya SUV
The Nissan Ariya SUV has an MSRP of $41,805. Its lease term is 36 months, with $4,409 due at signing and a mileage allowance of 10,000 a year. Monthly payment? A sweet $129!
Nissan cut the 2025 Ariya Engage’s price by $144 in April, so it now has an effective monthly cost of $251 – that’s seriously affordable for an electric SUV. If you’re already a Nissan driver, then you’re going to get an even better deal, because Nissan is offering a $1,000 loyalty discount on the Ariya, which brings its effective cost down to $224 per month.
CarsDirect, which sniffed out this deal, thinks this Ariya deal will be in place until Memorial Day, so take advantage of tariff-free pricing while you can.
Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Nissan Ariya in stock. –trusted affiliate copy
Honda Prologue SUV
The Honda Prologue SUV has an MSRP of $48,850. Its lease term is 36 months, with $1,399 due at signing and a mileage allowance of 10,000 a year. The monthly payment on the Prologue is $239.
The 2024 Honda Prologue has up to $18,800 in rebates, and the price includes a $1,000 lease loyalty discount or conquest offer. In California and other ZEV states, the EX has an effective cost of just $278 per month; in other parts of the US, pricing will be around $30 higher. This offer ends July 7.
Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Honda Prologue in stock. –trusted affiliate copy
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 has an MSRP of $43,880. Its best lease term is 24 months, with $1,044 due at signing and a mileage allowance of 10,000 a year. The monthly payment on the Model 3 is $349.
The 2025 Tesla Model 3 still has the $7,500 federal government EV rebate. Several months ago, Tesla reduced the amount due at signing on all Model 3s. And for those who want to lease a Long Range Model 3, the effective cost can be as low as $393 per month.
You can lease the Model 3 for 36 months, but the folks at CarsDirect found that the better deal will be had on 24-month leases. They compared the Model 3’s MSRP to the 2025 Lexus IS 300 F Sport’s MSRP, which is nearly identical, and the Model 3 was around 30% cheaper to lease.
Acura ZDX
The 2024 Acura ZDX has an MSRP of $65,850. Its best lease term is 36 months, with $4,699 due at signing and a mileage allowance of 7,500 a year. The monthly payment on the ZDX is $299.
The 2024 ZDX is Acura’s cheapest vehicle to lease because it features up to $29,450 in lease cash. However, the best deal is limited to California and ZEV states. If you cash in on a loyalty discount or conquest cash, the effective cost is $430 per month. This offer runs til June 30.
Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Acura ZDX in stock. –trusted affiliate copy
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Ford (F) reported its first-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street’s revenue and EPS expectations. However, with Trump’s auto tariffs, Ford is suspending full-year guidance. Here’s a breakdown of Ford’s Q1 2025 earnings
Ford Q1 2025 earnings preview
After crosstown rival General Motors cut its full-year financial guidance last week, investors are waiting to see if Ford will follow suit.
Ford’s previous 2025 forecast called for EBIT of $7 billion to $8.5 billion and capital expenditures between $8 billion and $9 billion.
The biggest threat is Trump’s new auto tariffs, which include a 25% duty on imported vehicles and many parts. Since Ford builds a greater percentage of vehicles in the US than any other major automaker, outside of Tesla, it isn’t expected to see as big of an impact.
CEO Jim Farley called it “an opportunity for Ford,” during an interview with CNN last week, saying the company has a “different footprint, a different exposure for tariffs.”
Ford imports around 21% of the vehicles it sells in the US, while GM imports around 46%. According to Estimize, Wall St expects Ford to post Q1 EPS of $0.0 on revenue of $38.02 billion.
The company reports earnings for each of its three business units, Ford Blue (gas-powered vehicles), Model e (electric vehicles), and Ford Pro (commercial and software business).
In the fourth quarter, Ford’s EV unit (Model e) lost another $1.4 billion while Pro and Blue each reported an adjusted EBIT of $1.6 billion.
Financial breakdown
Ford beat Wall Street estimates, reporting first-quarter revenue of $40.7 billion with an adjusted EPS of 0.49.
- Q1 2025 Revenue: $40.7 billion vs $38.02 billion expected.
- Q1 2025 Adjusted EPS: $0.49 vs $0.0 expected.
The company posted adjusted EBIT of $1 billion, down 63% from Q1 2024. Ford said its first-quarter EBIT suffered a nearly $200 million hit from added tariff costs, primarily in Ford Blue and Ford Pro.
Ford Pro generated an EBIT of $1.3 billion, Ford Blue $96 million, and Ford Model e reported an EBIT loss of $849 million.
For Model e, the company is focused on improving gross margins and “exercising a disciplined approach to investments in battery facilities and next-generation products.” Although still a nearly $1 billion loss, it’s still a $500 million improvement from Q1 2024.
Ford said higher Model e revenue was driven by new EVs launching in Europe, like the electric Explorer and Capri.
The company said its “Power Promise” promotion, which includes a free home charger and several other benefits, has helped drive demand in the US.
Although it’s tracking within its previous full-year adjusted EBIT guidance of between $7 billion and $8.5 billion, Ford is suspending full-year guidance due to the uncertainty surrounding tariffs.
Ford estimates the full-year gross cost of tariffs to be around $2.5 billion. It expects a tariff-related net adverse adjusted EBIT impact of about $1.5 billion for the full year 2025.
Ford also extended its “From America, For America” campaign last week. The promo includes employee pricing on most 2024 and 2025 models and now runs through July 4.
Check back for more info from Ford’s first quarter conference call. Ford is also hosting its annual meeting on Thursday, May 8, where we should learn more about its EV plans and how it will navigate the new tariffs.
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