Polestar maps out fleet future
2025 was a year for strengthening foundations for future growth. Polestar’s Matt Galvin and Rob Morris set out the brand’s future fleet sales ambitions. By Simon Harris.
Matt Galvin, managing director, Polestar
Five years after launching in the UK, Polestar is no longer an emerging EV brand fighting for recognition. With more than 50,000 cars now on British roads, a rapidly expanding retail network and a sharpened focus on fleet fundamentals, the Swedish performance EV marque is beginning to look like a long-term fixture in the company car market.
For managing director Matt Galvin, 2025 marked a turning point.
“Last year was my first full year in the role,” he says. “And I’m delighted to say we’ve had an exceptional year. UK sales were up 95%, with 17,000 new cars delivered. Pre-owned sales were up 300%. Put together, we found 20,000 new customers in the UK in a single year.”
For a premium, all-electric brand that is just five years old in this market – and which built most of that parc on a single model, the Polestar 2 – the scale of growth matters. December also marked the delivery of Polestar’s 50,000th UK car, making it the fastest-growing premium car brand in Britain last year.
That growth has come in tightly defined segments. Polestar operates in three to four core sectors, which together represent a relatively small slice of the overall market. Yet within those segments, Galvin says the brand finished second only to BMW in 2025, outperforming established rivals including Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volvo on a like-for-like basis.
A key part of that progress has been simple visibility. “We don’t have the marketing budgets of some of the major players,” Galvin says. “So getting cars on the road matters. When people see them, they understand what Polestar is.”
Investment has followed. Polestar has expanded its UK headquarters team, strengthened customer support functions and doubled the size of its retail network, growing from eight locations to 15, with plans to reach 20 by the end of the current 12-month period.
That retail strategy has also evolved. Early Polestar ‘spaces’ in shopping centres were effective for awareness, but less practical as the business matured. “We’re moving towards more traditional retail formats,” Galvin explains. “Partly because we now have used cars coming through, and partly because customers need better access for test drives and aftersales support.”
Customer service has become another point of emphasis. Galvin is open about the challenges that accompanied the launches of Polestar 3 and Polestar 4, particularly early software and delivery issues. But he points to measurable progress.
“According to Trustpilot, we’re now ranked number one in automotive for customer service,” he says. “We weren’t anywhere near that at the start of last year. We responded to 96% of negative comments within 48 hours. We don’t hide – if something goes wrong, we deal with it.”
That visibility extends beyond retail. Polestar has become increasingly vocal in public policy debates around electrification, lobbying for clearer, more consistent government messaging on EV incentives, public charging VAT and the treatment of electric vehicles in schemes such as the London congestion charge.
“Electrification isn’t the whole solution to sustainability,” Galvin says, “but it’s a big part of it. What customers need now is certainty. Mixed signals make the transition harder than it needs to be.”
“We sold just over 10,000 Polestar 4s last year. You do start to see them everywhere – and that builds confidence”
Rob Morris, head of sales, Polestar
While Galvin focuses on brand, scale and direction, much of Polestar’s improving performance in fleet rests on the work done behind the scenes. Some of that responsibility sits with Rob Morris, head of sales, who joined the business 14 months ago.
“When I arrived, we knew Polestar had been very strong in fleet historically,” Morris says. “EVs sold themselves to an extent, and Polestar 2 did a phenomenal job. But we wanted to rebalance the channel mix – to grow retail without losing momentum in fleet.”
Both channels grew strongly in 2025. Retail sales were up 85% year on year, while fleet volumes rose by 95%. Polestar also entered new channels, including Motability and rental; areas where EV-only brands have traditionally struggled to gain traction.
Those moves were not about volume for its own sake. “Rental and Motability matter because of what they do for the used car market,” Morris explains. “They get cars into circulation, put people behind the wheel, and then feed vehicles back into our own retail network.”
That logic underpins a broader shift in how Polestar manages fleet relationships. Morris says that putting a clearer structure in place to manage fleet sales has been critical to the brand’s improving performance, particularly with leasing companies, which remain Polestar’s largest customers.
“For leasing companies, it’s about confidence as much as growth,” he says. “They need to believe in the full lifecycle – not just placing the car, but what happens at the end of contract.”
Residual value management has therefore become central. Most Polestars are now remarketed back through the brand’s dealer network using closed auctions, rather than being released into the wider wholesale market. That approach gives Polestar greater control over used values and limits the number of cars drifting into independent channels.
“It creates a much clearer remarketing story,” Morris says. “Leasing partners can see where the cars go, how they’re handled and how values are protected. That reassurance makes a real difference when fleets are deciding whether to commit.”
To support that structure, Polestar has expanded its specialist fleet team, appointing dedicated contract hire and leasing managers and increasing field-based sales capacity. The brand has also adjusted its agency model, moving to a non-genuine agency approach that allows retailers to take greater ownership of customer relationships from order through to delivery.
After sales has evolved in parallel. Polestar continues to use Volvo’s authorised repair network, with 97 locations nationwide, but is also exploring standalone aftersales investments as the UK parc grows. Dedicated fleet aftersales support has been added to the customer contact centre, alongside increased training for retail partners.
The product story has helped. Polestar 2 finished 2025 with a 12% share of its segment, while Polestar 3 and 4 have performed strongly in the large and premium SUV categories, with Polestar 3 taking 21% of its segment in its first year.
“There’s an old saying that you need 10,000 cars on the road before people really start noticing them,” Morris says. “We sold just over 10,000 Polestar 4s last year. You do start to see them everywhere – and that builds confidence.”
With Polestar 5 and 4 on the horizon, plus the new-generation 2 electric fastback and the Polestar 7 in development, the brand’s next phase will be shaped less by disruption and more by consolidation. For fleets, the message is increasingly clear: Polestar is no longer testing the water. It is building the systems, relationships and confidence required to stay.
