Australia’s Polestar 4 to be built in China, with more manufacturing planned for Korea

The rapidly expanding Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer has confirmed another factory to cater for its growing customer base

Polestar’s avalanche of new models destined for the global market are being met with an equally global network of manufacturing hubs.

Following behind the significantly updated 2 liftback and 3 large SUV will be the Polestar 4, a slightly smaller SUV better compared to the highly successful Tesla Model Y.

Polestar 4 manufacturing 2023 2 — Polestar has announced it will be building its 4 SUV in a new factory in South Korea

Polestar today announced that it would build the incoming 4 in Busan, South Korea, during the second half of 2025. The latest manufacturing hub will provide vehicles for the South Korean and the North American market.

The plans were announced after an agreement was struck between Polestar, Geely Holding and Renault Korea Motors to build the EVs in the plant, which has been building cars for 23 years and is currently staffed by around 2000 employees.

What does this mean for Australia?

Polestar Australia head of PR & communications, Laurissa Mirabelli, told Chasing Cars that Australian vehicles would not be derived from this new location.

“All Australian product will be sourced from China for the foreseeable future,” meaning that the Polestar 2, 3, 4 and potentially the 5 sedan will come from the one place.

Polestar 4 manufacturing 2023 — Although Australia’s Polestar 4 won’t come from Korea, we could stand to benefit

Although Australia may not directly benefit from the latest manufacturing source, the higher number of build locations allows a potentially larger supply of vehicles if there is enough demand.

In 2024, the Polestar 3 will be built in South Carolina, USA, where the cars will be provided to the broader country along with the European market.

The Polestar 4 in brief

Set to arrive in Australia in early 2024, the Polestar 4 is expected to be priced north of $80,000 before on-road costs locally in single-motor RWD guise.

Polestar 4 side angle gold vehicle — The Polestar 4 will arrive in Australia next year

Polestar will offer two fundamental variants: a rear-wheel-drive, long-range single-motor and an all-wheel-drive long-range dual-motor. Both will be a 94kWh-usable battery pack.

The former will use a 200kW/343Nm motor on the rear axle and a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time in 7.4 seconds, with a claimed range of over 600km (WLTP).

The AWD model produces a combined 400kW/686Nm output, a 3.8 second 0-100km/h time and has a claimed range of 560km (WLTP).