EV automaker Polestar has announced several expansion plans for 2024 and 2025 as its portfolio of all-electric offerings continues to grow and hit new customers. In addition to expanding its own retail footprint, Polestar is deploying new non-agency sales models and has announced seven new markets it will begin selling to next year.
Polestar ($PSNY) remains a small but growing EV-centric brand backed by Geely out of China. The melting pot brand with European and Chinese roots is just starting to gain a foothold in the market on the wings of the Polestar 2, its flagship BEV model that has seen several refreshes since its initial launch in 2020.
Since that debut, the automaker has announced several new models in its pipeline, including the Polestar 3, which will soon begin sales and deliveries. That initial SUV will be followed by a more compact model called the Polestar 4 and a sports sedan called the 5.
In addition to China, Polestar has expanded BEV sales to certain European countries and the US, where the SUVs mentioned above will eventually be built.
As Polestar tries to expand its reach to new prospective customers around the globe, it has announced new levers to grow its retail and sales network and offer its incoming lineup of vehicles to additional markets like France.
Polestar expands and adjust sales model, join new markets
Earlier today, Polestar announced a new sales model that will expand its commercial footprint and retail operations in existing markets before moving outward to new ones next year.
The new strategy in Europe will include the switch to a non-agency sales model with the help of new existing partners in its current markets. That switch began in Sweden and Norway in early June and will be implemented in other European markets in the second half of 2024.
Despite the new non-agency model, Polestar said customers will still be able to configure a BEV of their own online and take delivery, or they can visit the automaker’s growing footprint of retail locations called “Spaces.” Per Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath:
Expanding our retail operations with new and existing partners will enable us to reach more customers. Through these partnerships and expansion, we will capitalize on our strong brand and growing model line-up.
As part of its new strategy, the company has also announced several personnel shakeups, including the appointment of Anders Gustafsson as the new head of Polestar North America, succeeding Gregor Hembrough, who is transitioning to the head of global sales operations. Gustaffson spent 13 years at Volvo Cars, including six years as the senior vice president of Americas and president and CEO of Volvo Cars USA.
Lastly, Polestar shared plans to expand BEV sales to seven new markets throughout 2025, including France – its second-largest EV market launch behind Germany. Other new markets include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Thailand, and Brazil, with the help of local distribution partnerships.
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China just connected its largest single-capacity solar farm built on a former coal mining area, which is in the Gobi Desert, to the grid.
The Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station, located in Otog Front Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, came online on November 5. With a massive installed capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) and over 5.9 million solar panels, the plant will generate around 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually – enough to power 2 million households.
This huge project will save about 1.71 million tons of standard coal each year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 4.7 million tons, which is equivalent to planting 62,700 hectares (around 155,000 acres) of trees.
Built on coal mining subsidence land, Mengxi Blue Ocean is part of China’s national West-East Electricity Transfer Project, which brings investment and development to western China west while supplying the growing need for electricity in the eastern provinces.
The solar farm includes the country’s first large-scale outdoor solar testing base in the Gobi Desert climate, demonstrating the potential for large solar installations in challenging environments.
The power station makes use of new rare earth alloy grounding materials, cutting costs by 40%. It also replaces traditional concrete foundations with steel to minimize impact on the local grassland ecosystem.
Chuang Xihong, deputy director of the Engineering Construction Department of Guodian Power Group, CHN Energy’s parent company, explained that Mengxi Blue Ocean is an agrivoltaic project as well [via PV Tech]:
Fine forage and sand-fixing plants are planted under the PV modules, providing grazing for Australian White Sheep and chickens. A composite ecological development model will be established where PV power generation and breeding will go hand in hand.
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Operations at Three Mile Island are poised to restart in four years, the latest sign that the nuclear power industry is undergoing a major turnaround after a wave of plant closures.
The Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island, which entered service in 1974, was permanently shut down in 2019 due to economic pressure as nuclear power struggled to compete against natural gas. But the tech sector’s growing power needs are breathing new life into the industry.
Constellation Energy plants to restart Unit 1 in 2028 through an agreement with Microsoft to help power the tech company’s data centers. The plant will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center — after Chris Crane, the late CEO of the plant’s former owner, Exelon — and its restart is subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Department of Energy said Unit 1 operated safely and efficiently before being shut down five years ago. However, it lies within walking distance of the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The Unit 2 reactor suffered a partial meltdown in 1979 and has not operated since the accident. It is being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions.
Constellation’s chief generation officer, Bryan Hanson said Unit 1 is in good condition and the restoration will mostly involve typical maintenance work.
Here is a look at the plant’s main control room, the turbine deck that houses the main power generator, and the facility’s iconic cooling towers. For more on the restart click here.
Main control room
The control panel in the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Constellation’s chief generation officer, Bryan Hanson, inside the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Telephones in the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Turbine deck
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Electrical panels on the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
A desk on the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Cooling towers
A detail of two cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Power lines and a cooling tower at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Detail of a cooling tower at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
— CNBC’s Danielle DeVries contributed to this report.