Tesla drivers can get up to $20K discount by switching to EV rival Polestar
- Polestar is offering a $5,000 incentive to Tesla owners who lease a new 2025 Polestar 3.
- Combined with a clean vehicle incentive, the deal could reach $20,000 off the lease of a new Polestar 3.
- Polestar, a Swedish brand owned by Geely, is expanding its model line and global presence in the EV market.
As Tesla deals with the pushback from those opposed to CEO Elon Musk’s federal-government slashing actions, the electric vehicle-maker’s customers are also being targeted by one of its smaller rivals.
Luxury EV-maker Polestar is offering a $5,000 incentive, known as the Polestar Conquest Program bonus, in an attempt to get Tesla owners behind the wheel of a Polestar 3.
The offer, combined with a Polestar Clean Vehicle Noncash Incentive of up $15,000, would garner $20,000 off the lease of a new 2025 Polestar 3, according to the company.
A person who answered the phone at the Polestar showroom in Royal Oak, Michigan, said the Tesla bonus would simply be subtracted from the lease total for those eligible, and that all Polestar vehicles qualify for the company's clean vehicle incentive. For reference, the base price to purchase a 2025 Polestar 3 is $73,400, excluding the $1,400 destination charge, the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network, reported in September.
The conquest bonus is available for eligible customers who own or lease a Tesla vehicle, but a trade-in is not required to get the deal, according to Mike Ofiara, a Polestar spokesman, who said in an email that “we have not done anything like this in the past with specific automakers.”
The deal, which originally launched Feb. 21 and was extended beyond February based on the response, has been positive for Polestar, Ofiara said, noting that “customer handovers” (when a customer takes delivery of a Polestar) for the last week of February were 60% of the monthly total.
In addition, he said “Polestar USA has seen significant increases in search and leads."
Ofiara didn’t weigh in on a question about why Polestar was targeting Tesla now. The Free Press did reach out to Tesla for comment at a company email address that receives press inquiries but had not received a response.
Even with so much attention on Musk and recent stories about declining sales, however, it’s not clear how vulnerable Tesla is to this kind of targeting. The automaker still has many loyal customers, and it remains a U.S.-based company, with significant vehicle manufacturing operations in California and Texas in addition to its global footprint.
Polestar began life as a Swedish racing team that tuned up Volvos. The Swedish brand acquired it and made it the company's performance line before Geely, the Chinese automaker that owns Volvo, decided to separate Polestar as a maker of performance EVs.
It builds vehicles in China, Europe and South Carolina, and is rapidly expanding its model line into new segments. The Ridgeville, S.C., plant, which also builds Volvos, plays a key role in the company's plans for U.S. growth, as does building its least expensive model, the EX30, in Europe to avoid tariffs targeting Chinese-built EVs.
Polestar's a small brand, selling 44,851 vehicles globally last year, but its access to Volvo design and engineering, and electric motors and batteries developed by the group, helped it gain credibility quickly. It's working to develop a more independent profile.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com.