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This morning, Polestar shared details of its upcoming 2024 model year Polestar 2 sedan that features upgrades well beyond the cosmetic. In addition to a revamped front end to match its 3 SUV sibling, the 2024 Polestar 2 will arrive with upgrades to its battery and motors, delivering more power and acceleration. Additionally, the newest Polestar 2 will be the brand’s first model to offer a rear-wheel drive configuration, contributing to the EV’s best range to date.

Polestar ($PSNY) is a relatively young EV automaker that just capped off a successful 2022 by surpassing its delivery target of 50,000 EVs. These sales were led by its first all-electric model, the Polestar 2 “fastback.”

The Polestar 2 debuted in three years ago as a 2021 model and has continued to grow in popularity since. It is currently sold in 27 different markets and surpassed 100,000 total units sold in late 2022. We’ve tested multiple variations ourselves including the Long Range Single Motor (FWD) version as well as the 2023 Dual Motor. Most recently, we took the performance BST Edition 270 out around San Francisco and had a blast.

While the Polestar has delivered the 2 in a variety of powertrains and continued to upgrade its technology over-the-air and through additional model years, the automaker has yet to deliver a rear-wheel drive version of any of its EVs.

With today’s announcement, a RWD Polestar 2 will soon be available as a 2024 model and features some of the same design features as the brand new Polestar 3 scheduled to arrive this year as well. Check out the first official images of the 2024 Polestar 2. Notice the new front end?

2024 Polestar 2 sees RWD, 30 miles of additional range

Polestar shared details of its 2024 model year 2 earlier today, showcasing some of the upgrades the all-electric fastback will be packing both inside and out. Unlike many EV refreshes we see each year (a’hem, Nissan LEAF) the latest Polestar 2 received some significant additions, beginning with its front grill.

2024 will bring a new front end to the Polestar 2 that “sees” instead of “breathes.” This design is called “SmartZone” and recently debuted as a feature on the upcoming Polestar 3, representing new design language for the EV brand going forward. SmartZone consists of several forward-facing sensors, a front-facing radar, heating wires, accelerometers, and ultrasonic sensors that combine to operate as a “smart eye” with ready-to-react safety technology.

Moving inward, this model year refresh offers a helluva lot more than sensors on its front end. Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath elaborated:

Typically in the car industry, a facelift introduces superficial visual changes that often destroy the original intention of the car’s design theme. With the new model year Polestar 2, we rather went below the surface and upgraded substantial tech and mechanical components of the electric drivetrain. This is the best Polestar 2 yet, and with the updated front design with the new SmartZone, the best looking one, too.

As Ingelath says, the three latest Polestar 2 variants will each see performance upgrades thanks to new batteries and updated powertrains, foregoing the previous FWD configuration in favor of power from the rear wheels.

As you’ll see in the table below, Polestar’s new motor will offer an increase of power output from 231 hp to 299 hp. With the new RWD configuration, the 2024 Polestar 2’s 0-60 mph acceleration has shaved off 1.1 seconds, down to 5.9 seconds.

The two Dual Motor versions of the Polestar 2 are now rear wheel biased (primary drive source), delivering a completely re-balanced setup and torque-ratio. The result is overall efficiency and higher performance, particularly in terms of horsepower, torque, and overall acceleration.

Future Polestar 2 drivers will soon be able to disengage the front motor entirely when not needed, adding range and efficiency to their drive. By utilizing this new feature, the Dual Motor Polestar 2 can now achieve the same range (up to 270 miles) as the 2023 Single Motor variant.

Lastly, the new RWD Single Motor Polestar 2 gets a slightly larger battery pack, allowing for up to 300 miles of all-electric range (compared to 270 in 2023 FWD version). Check out the full spec comparison below.

Polestar 2 Variant Powertrain Battery
Capacity
Expected EPA Range (Preliminary) Power Torque Acceleration
(0-60 mph)
Max Charging
Speed (DCFC)
Long Range Dual Motor (w/Performance Pack) AWD 78 kWh Up to 270 miles 455 hp (335 kW) 546 lb-ft (740 Nm) 4.1 seconds 155 kW
Long Range Dual Motor AWD 78 kWh Up to 270 miles 421 hp (310 kW) 546 lb-ft (740 Nm) 4.3 seconds 155 kW
Long Range Single Motor RWD 82 kWh Up to 300 miles 299 hp (220 kW) 361 lb-ft (490 Nm) 5.9 seconds 205 kW

Other new features include upgraded 20-inch forged alloy wheels in the Performance Pack that align with the Polestar 3 design, plus Driver Awareness features are now standard. For example, in North America, the Pilot Pack will also now come standard on both Dual Motor versions of the 2024 Polestar 2.

Additionally, any Performance Pack upgrades now automatically include the the Plus Pack as well. That entails a Harman Kardon premium sound system and panoramic glass roof in addition to the Brembo brakes, 20-inch forged alloy wheels, Öhlins Dual Flow Valve dampers, software upgrade, and signature gold seat belts in the Performance Pack.

The 2024 Polestar 2 is available for order now and deliveries to customers are expected to begin later this year.

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Trump is fixated on Greenland — a vast Arctic island with massive resource potential

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Trump is fixated on Greenland — a vast Arctic island with massive resource potential

An aircraft alledgedly carrying US businessman Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on January 7, 2025.

Emil Stach | Afp | Getty Images

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s pursuit to acquire Greenland could well be motivated by critical minerals, with mining executives and researchers describing the island’s massive resource potential as an “enormous opportunity.”

Trump’s years-long bid to take control of the world’s largest island has kicked into overdrive in recent weeks.

Ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump said U.S. ownership of the autonomous Danish territory is an “absolute necessity” for purposes related to “national security and freedom throughout the world.”

Trump has since doubled down on those comments, refusing to rule out the use of military or economic force to make Greenland a part of the U.S.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has told Trump that the Arctic island is “not for sale” and urged the international community to respect the territory’s aspirations for independence. Alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Egede has also recently called for talks with Trump to resolve the situation.

Asked about Trump’s fixation on making Greenland a part of the U.S., the president-elect’s incoming national security advisor, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., was unequivocal.

“This is about critical minerals. This is about natural resources,” Waltz told Fox News in an interview on Jan. 9.

“This is about reintroducing America in the Western Hemisphere,” Waltz said. “You can call it Monroe Doctrine 2.0, but this is all part of the ‘America First‘ agenda.”

Greenland is going to become more and more topical; it is going to become more and more front and center because of the climate change discussion, the critical metals discussion and the geopolitical discussion.

Roderick McIllree

Executive director of 80 Mile

Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered essential to the energy transition. These minerals, which tend to have a high risk of supply chain disruption, include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements.

Critical minerals and rare earth elements are vital components in emerging green technologies, such as wind turbines and electric vehicles, energy storage technologies and national security applications.

China is the undisputed leader of the critical minerals supply chain, accounting for roughly 60% of the world’s production of rare earth minerals and materials. U.S. officials have previously warned that this poses a strategic challenge amid the pivot to low-carbon energy sources.

In this aerial view melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16, 2024 near Ilulissat, Greenland.

Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Jakob Kløve Keiding, senior consultant at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said a 2023 survey of Greenland’s resource potential evaluated a total of 38 raw materials on the island, the vast majority of which have a relatively high or moderate potential.

These materials include the rare earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum and titanium.

“Overall, we can say that there is a huge potential for critical raw materials [in Greenland],” Keiding told CNBC via telephone.

“Many of these are of great importance for the EU economy and, of course, it is not limited to just Europe. Many of these are also on the list of American [critical raw materials],” he added.

‘Greenland is not for sale’

Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenland member of the Danish parliament from the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, described Trump’s comments about Greenland as “disrespectful” and reaffirmed the prime minister’s message by saying the territory is not for sale.

“I’m not concerned. I think that some people in Greenland are quite concerned, but I think it is important for us to say that Greenland is not for sale, never has been for sale [and] never will be for sale,” Chemnitz told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Monday.

Chemnitz said Greenlandic lawmakers would need to have “clear and very specific goals on how to collaborate with the U.S.”

American investors are 'welcome' in Greenland — but it's not for sale, politician says

Closer ties between Greenland and the U.S. moving forward, for instance, could help to facilitate investment in the island’s mining industry, she added.

“If we look at extraction, for example, of rare earths. This is something that we have been willing to do for a very long time. We’ve been looking for American investors, [but] we haven’t found them, so they are quite welcome,” Chemnitz said.

The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence in northwest Greenland at the Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base.

‘A race for what’s left’

Roderick McIllree, executive director of U.K.-based mining company 80 Mile, said he’s been working in Greenland for just over 20 years on projects ranging from resource discovery to feasibility.

“I think that what we’re seeing in Greenland is really a race for what’s left,” McIllree told CNBC via video call.

“A lot of independent state surveys are pointing to Greenland and its natural shelf boundaries as potentially hosting 20% to 25% of the last remaining extractable resources on the planet. Now, if that’s right, that’s an enormous opportunity for Greenland.”

The Old Colonial Harbour of Nuuk, Greenland is pictured on August 30, 2024. Greenland, an icy land whose rugged landscapes are bewitching, wants to attract more tourists, a paradox for a territory that is particularly vulnerable to global warming and whose geographical isolation means that many people have to take planes to get there.

James Brooks | Afp | Getty Images

‘Significant strategic interest’

In March last year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Nuuk, Greenland to inaugurate an EU office in the island’s capital.

The move, which came several months before Donald Trump Jnr.’s recent trip to the same city, was designed to firm up Europe’s presence in the territory as well as the broader Arctic region.

Von der Leyen announced two cooperation agreements totaling almost 94 million euros ($95.9 million) at the time, which she said would be used to invest in clean energy, critical raw materials and skills in Greenland.

(L-R) President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute B Egede and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sign an agreement on the opening of the European Commission’s new office in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 15, 2024.

Leiff Josefsen | Afp | Getty Images

“I’m a geologist by background and I know that Greenland is very well endowed with natural resources,” Paul Lusty, head of battery raw materials research at Fastmarkets, told CNBC via video call.

“There has been a lot of interest in rare earths in Greenland, for example, and clearly, they can be of significant strategic interest to the U.S.,” Lusty said.

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Kia access to Tesla Superchargers delayed, had been expected this week

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Kia access to Tesla Superchargers delayed, had been expected this week

Hot on the heels of Kia being added to Tesla’s “coming soon” page for Supercharger access, we’re now learning that Supercharger support won’t actually come nearly as soon as expected for Kia – with a delay of weeks or months before Kia owners can plug in at North America’s largest fast charging network.

Earlier today, Kia and several other brands were added to Tesla’s coming soon page, suggesting that access could be imminent.

This squared with a previous September announcement that access would come in January – with a planned date of January 15, just two days away from now.

But today, PC Magazine reported that Kia’s access will be delayed to sometime in Spring.

Specifically, Kia has updated a press release on its website which previously stated a launch date of January 15. The press release now says “Access to the DC fast chargers is planned for the first quarter of 2025.”

That means it could be any time in the next three months, assuming there are no further delays.

PC Magazine quoted James Bell, Kia’s head of PR, as stating that “a delay has occurred and we are working with the appropriate teams to confirm new availability/date.” We also reached out to Bell to see if we could get any more information, but hadn’t heard back as of press time.

It’s unclear whether this delay will affect other brands, like Hyundai and Genesis.

Kia and Hyundai (and Hyundai sub-brand Genesis) share a platform for their electric vehicles, and have been the first to offer vehicles with native NACS ports on 2025 models, as opposed to using adapters like all other brands have so far. Older Kia/Hyundai vehicles without a native NACS port will still be able to use an adapter once cars gain access to the network.

We reached out to Hyundai to find out whether they’ve been hit by the same delay, but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll update if we do.

In 2022, Tesla announced it would open its charging network, lured by big money promised in President Biden’s federal EV charging grants.

For a while it seemed like a bit of a hail mary, as many thought that most of the industry was already committed to the SAE CCS standard for fast charging.

But then, in 2023, Ford announced it would adopt Tesla’s “NACS” connector, and all the dominos started to fall. Soon enough, basically the entire industry had announced a shift to Tesla’s charging standard.

But these things take time, and the industry had to work on redesigning vehicles, building adapters, organizing software handshakes, and building out an official standard. Now, several brands can already use Superchargers, with more to come.

The rollout seemed to be slowing down for a time, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk abruptly fired the entire Supercharging team which had been responsible for successfully executing this coup that could see Tesla gaining a lasting lead in EV charging, with those firings causing total chaos and jeopardizing the transition.

Earlier today, when so many brands were added to the “coming soon” page, it seemed like perhaps the dust had settled on the chaotic charging situation caused my Musk’s instability. But perhaps this Kia news is indication that there’s still some trouble that needs to be worked through.


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Biden pushes through $635M in EV charger grants before Trump’s return

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Biden pushes through 5M in EV charger grants before Trump's return

The Biden administration awarded $635 million in EV charger grants just 10 days before Donald Trump takes office, leaving just $700,000 of the $2.5 billion from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law unallocated.

The grants from Biden’s zero-emission refueling infrastructure programs will fund 49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports and alternative fuel infrastructure along corridors and in communities across 27 states, four federally recognized tribes, and the District of Columbia.

$368 million will be allocated for 42 projects that expand EV charging infrastructure within communities across the US, while $268 million will go toward seven projects that build out the national fast charging network along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors.

The grants, which were announced on Friday, are made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program and a 10% set-aside from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, “These investments will help states and communities build out a network of EV chargers in the coming years so that one day, finding a charge on a road trip will be as easy as filling up at a gas station.”

There are currently nearly 70,000 public EV charging stations across the US, with over 197,000 charging ports, according to the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. The Biden administration set a goal of building out 500,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2030.

Since the election, the Biden administration has been rushing to distribute clean energy funding in response to Trump’s threats to claw it back. Once the funds are allocated, reclaiming them will be nearly impossible.

Read more: Wisconsin’s first 3 NEVI-funded EV fast charging stations are open


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