Exploring Polestar's commitment to an all-electric future, Rick Bryan, the new CEO for Polestar in the US, shares insights on the brand's evolution from a racing company to a leader in electric vehicles. He discusses the importance of sustainability, the ease of EV ownership, and the transition from direct-to-consumer sales to a traditional dealer network. The conversation highlights the unique design of the Polestar 4, the challenges of EV adoption, and the future of electric mobility amidst changing industry dynamics.
In this episode, we visit Polestar’s new EV showroom in Miami to talk with Rick Bryant, Head of Polestar North America, just moments after delivering the first Polestar 4 sold in the U.S. Bryant explains why Polestar is fully confident that the future of mobility will be 100% electric, and how the brand is positioning itself for that transition.
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"...we're sitting here inside a Polestar 4, I'm sorry. It's related, it's related."
The Polestar 4 is a new electric SUV made by Polestar, which is a brand that focuses on performance electric cars. It's designed to be stylish and packed with modern technology.
The Polestar 4 is an electric SUV from Polestar, a performance brand that originated from Volvo. It features a sleek design and advanced technology aimed at enhancing the driving experience.
"But for people who are still not very familiar with the brand and make the mistake like I just did, thinking that this is Volvo, which is part of the group."
Volvo is a car company from Sweden that is famous for making safe and reliable cars. They also have a brand called Polestar that focuses on electric cars.
Volvo is a well-known Swedish automotive manufacturer recognized for its focus on safety and quality. It has a long history of producing reliable vehicles and has recently expanded into electric vehicles through its brand Polestar.
"and it made all the sense in the world to build a performance EV. So we spun Polestar off from Volvo at that time"
A performance EV is an electric car that is built to be fast and fun to drive. It has special features that make it perform better than regular electric cars.
A performance EV refers to an electric vehicle designed for high performance, offering superior speed, handling, and driving dynamics compared to standard electric vehicles. These cars often feature advanced technology and engineering to enhance their performance.
"...I had the pleasure to drive the Ford. Recently I was at the Nactoy Drives."
Ford is a well-known car company from the United States that makes many types of vehicles, including trucks and sports cars.
Ford is an American automotive manufacturer known for producing a wide range of vehicles, including trucks, SUVs, and cars. They are particularly famous for models like the Ford F-150 and Mustang.
"...I was at the Nactoy Drives. He was a semi-finalist, sorry he didn't make it..."
Nactoy Drives are events where car experts test new cars to decide which ones are the best. It's important for car companies to get recognition at these events.
Nactoy Drives refers to events organized by the North American Car of the Year (NACOTY) committee where automotive journalists test and evaluate new vehicles for potential awards. It's a significant event in the automotive industry.
"...the powertrain, the 100% electric. The design is some people can different, let's say."
A 100% electric car runs only on electricity and doesn't use any gas. It has batteries that you charge, and it doesn't produce any pollution from the tailpipe.
A 100% electric vehicle (EV) is powered entirely by electricity, using batteries instead of gasoline or diesel. These vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions and are increasingly popular due to their environmental benefits and advancements in battery technology.
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Today, we're sitting here inside a Polestar 4, I'm sorry.
It's related, it's related.
I made a mistake myself.
So here with Rick Bryan, he's the, can we say new CEO
for Polestar in the US, what do I say, April?
April, April.
You were appointed, but you have a long history
with a parent company.
I'm 30-something years with Volvo,
and then of course, I actually retired.
I was playing with my grandkids enjoying life
and was asked to come back and help move this
from more of a direct to consumer
to more of a traditional network type of business.
And so a lot has changed in the industry.
I mean, in your life too.
If you're retired, come back to work, obviously.
But for people who are still not very familiar
with the brand and make the mistake like I just did,
thinking that this is Volvo, which is part of the group.
But tell us a little bit of the story of Polestar.
Yeah, really a different brand completely than Volvo.
You know, obviously Polestar started out
as a racing company, and they specialized
in racing Volvos.
So Volvo eventually acquired Polestar
and started to build engineered vehicles for Volvo
using Polestar technology, which was...
Because what, in the 90s?
No, it was probably just around 2000.
Oh, okay, more recent.
Right before the Ford acquired Volvo.
And then we decided that we wanted to do EVs,
and it made all the sense in the world
to build a performance EV.
So we spun Polestar off from Volvo at that time
and created its own brand.
And it's been going on for about five years?
About five years.
About five years since we first started.
It was the three, the first model?
Well, actually the one was the first one.
Oh, the one, yeah.
Yeah, the one, which was actually a hybrid.
It was the only hybrid that we ever built,
and it still is an extremely attractive vehicle.
They are all of them, aren't they?
And the drive is really nice as well.
But no longer in production, we're 100% EV now.
So there's a lot of...
Especially this year with all the politics
involving automotive industry.
There's still a lot of talk about
like if electric is the future.
You obviously believe it is.
I mean, like there's no other way out, right?
100%.
I mean, in the end of the day,
the propulsion has to change
and EV makes all the sense in the world.
Technology will continue to change.
We'll continue to change with it, of course.
You know, whether it be battery technology
or motor technologies for electric motors,
but at the end of the day,
this is the way we need to move.
You know, sustainability is incredibly important to us.
And we think it makes all the difference in the world.
But I also think that once you drive an EV
and you start to realize two things,
total cost of ownership,
but even more than that total ease of ownership,
it starts to mean a whole lot more to the consumer.
Adoption's always a little slower
than you'd like it to be.
Yeah, probably not as fast as like the politicians
or somebody was thinking 30, 20, 35 or something.
I mean, that also has changed
in the past few years, right?
Yeah, and of course that'll ebb and flow, you know,
as things go.
I remember one of the first rises in gas price.
I was in California and I was driving a big pickup
and immediately I wanted to get rid of the pickup, you know.
But as gas prices come down,
people's actions sort of that change.
But I think it's a bigger picture than that for us, right?
So performance, sustainability, design,
you know, all those critical elements for us
are so important.
And you can see it in our cars
and you can certainly feel it when you drive them.
Absolutely, I drove.
I had the pleasure to drive the Ford.
Recently I was at the Nactoy Drives.
He was a semi-finalist, sorry he didn't make it,
but it's like...
Semi-finalists are still good.
I'm only one boat out of 50, but it was, yeah.
And this is a very interesting car for many, many reasons.
I mean, we already talked about the powertrain,
the 100% electric.
The design is some people can different, let's say.
Well, it can be polarizing,
and especially when you talk about the Ford
because of the lack of the back glass, right?
But once you get in the car and you drive it
and you realize that the visibility out of the mirror
is 100% better than anything
that headrests or people in the back.
Not only can you see more than you can see
out of a rear window,
but you can also see more periphery.
So it takes sometimes up to a day to really adapt to it,
but like anything else, once you adapt to it,
kind of hard to go back.
It's like really, like the new technology
makes a lot of sense.
And I was talking to other different topics
about other different things.
I mean, like, do you think people
want to go back to landline?
No, right, because the cellular phones work better.
You know what happens?
You get a new software for your phone
and you're downloaded.
In the first few days, you're like,
oh, I like the way it used to work.
And then all of a sudden it's like,
I don't ever want to go back
because I've now gotten used to this.
It's a little bit of an adoption.
So let's talk about another aspect of the change
recently with the company.
I was in this same building two years ago.
Oh, actually almost three because March of 24.
And why is the reopening?
Why is that important?
So it's important that you understand the transition
from direct to consumer to more traditional network.
And you know, I'm a firm believer in the network
always have been because I think that
dealers within the community can better serve the public
than I can for an office in New Jersey.
So initially we opened this up as a public space
to show off our wares.
And then we had some interest from our dealer
who was interested in taking on the franchise.
After some negotiations and some discussions,
he decided to go ahead and do that.
So now this goes from being a company-owned space
to being owned by the dealer in the middle of the way.
So like this, people can come in here,
look at the cars, probably do a test ride
because you have a big parking lot in the back.
So you have cars there and then go out and do the test ride.
Get all the knowledge that they need to get.
Jada here is a product expert.
She can tell you everything you want to know.
All the options that are available,
the best way to go ahead
and then the dealer can make it happen.
And then they'll take care of the consumer from there.
And even though electric cars take a lot less maintenance,
there's like service at a physical place near here.
Yeah, it's at Volvo North Miami.
So it's not too far.
It's about 25 minutes from here.
And so for some people to be close
and for some people maybe like anything.
I think the big thing is that, yes, totally is a bonus ship.
So service maintenance requirements in these cars
is once every two years.
It's wiper blades.
That's amazing.
Wiper blades and cabin filter.
Check the tires.
But you still need a local dealer.
There are other things that happen.
That's one of the things that some people are very,
not very, but a little bit of comfortable
with a new company, even though it's not new,
a new brand, I should say.
This company is like, I don't know,
how many years, more than one decade,
but still a lot of uncertainty,
like what is it, where I'm gonna do it, electric.
So a lot of new things.
And in that sense, there's a lot of people
who have to be still convinced
and a lot of explaining to do, right?
Yeah, and I think, you know,
I saw an article recently in the last couple of weeks
that said that something like 87% of EV owners
were convinced with the test drive.
Yeah, that's the first experience.
And another 67% said they were convinced
with their salesperson who was knowledgeable.
So I think, you know, the big thing with EVs
is you need to get in the water.
Find out that it's safe to sweat, you know.
And then once you do that,
then you adapt very quickly
and you start to realize that, you know,
I should have done this years ago.
You were talking about the software in the new phone
and new things that you experienced
and you think it was the old ways were better.
I mean, I'm not an expert as you are your level,
but I always tell people like, take two weeks, two, three weeks.
What do you think is the learning curve
for going completely from gas to completely electric?
Why would you tell a new customer
if you were trying to convince them?
The two things that I talk about always
is those two items I talked about earlier.
Total cost ownership is so much nicer.
And that's not a big issue,
and then total ease of ownership, you know.
The trick is to take the friction out of your life, right?
So if I can get up every morning with a full tank of gas
and never a full tank of energy, excuse me for saying gas,
you know, if I can not have to stop, you know,
on the way to pick the kids up from school and get gas,
if I don't have to think about
going to my local dealership for an oil change,
if I don't have to think about
all those things that interrupt my daily schedule,
then my life becomes easier.
Not to mention that it's so much fun to drive.
I know, they're quick, they're fine,
they're quiet, they handle well.
But people will argue,
and I'm being the difficult client here.
People, please do.
I have to stop if I have to go to Orlando from Miami.
What will be your answer?
So my answer is, is that the infrastructure
is good enough now that that's never a problem.
So I drove, you know, from the other side of Florida today.
Naples or nowhere?
No issues at all.
I mean, the parking garage charging while I'm here,
car will be fine to go home when I leave.
So it was like 200 miles more or less?
The cars have more, right?
Yeah, a lot more.
I could have easily made it round-trip.
Oh really?
Easily made it round-trip.
And that's the curve, the learning curve
I was talking about, like,
you obviously have the experience,
you know that you can make it back.
But a lot of people, even with phones,
people don't know how to charge the phone.
It's at 60 and you see them at the airport,
like looking for a plug, like anywhere like five minutes.
It's not like water,
it's not like a jar of water filling up a glass.
It doesn't charge like that, right?
And if you had a quarter of a tank of gas,
you wouldn't worry about running down to 7-11
and pick up a quarter of milk.
But once you get used to it, you start to know.
So you think two weeks, two to three weeks,
like that was saying?
Yeah, you know, and then a couple of long trips.
The reality is, is most people
don't take that many long trips.
No, exactly.
Most people don't do more than 100 miles a day.
So if you wake up every morning
and your car's completely charged,
you never experience it.
There are people I know in electric vehicles
who have never been on a public charger.
Yeah.
At home, yeah.
Yeah, it just hasn't happened.
You pull in at night, you plug your car,
and even if you don't have to.
But it's the same thing going right to the comparison
to the phone.
That seems we've been talking about,
like making that comparison.
People buy the phone with the most memory.
Correct.
They never use it.
Correct.
And computers are the same.
Yeah, every day.
It's always the fear of what if, right?
Yeah.
You know, but I understand that in slowly,
but surely people will come around.
I've sold a lot of EVs to a lot of friends.
Yeah.
Exactly, no, no, no.
I've seen in my neighbor, two people,
even not completely electric,
but even plug-in hybrids,
they drive eight miles.
Yeah.
I mean, every day.
And then they charge it every night,
they have like 40, so it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah.
So let's talk about more of a specific brand.
So you have the four now.
Yeah.
And then back, that one back there
is the first one sold in the US?
Yes.
Wow, that's amazing.
And actually it's the first one to reach dealer.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
So the boat, the first boat of four has just landed
about a week ago.
We're processing.
This is building Korea right now.
You're South Korea.
We're processing them at the port as we speak
and shipping them all over the country.
Yeah.
So we would expect by the end of this week,
probably every space will have some inventory of P4s.
Wow, that's amazing.
We've got a bunch that are already pre-sold.
We opened up our test drive portal,
interestingly enough, on Friday night
and by Sunday night, we had 250 requests
for test drive.
Wow, that's amazing.
It's exciting for us.
Tell us a little bit about that new model, the four.
You're in one.
Oh, I know one.
So the interesting thing, of course,
is it's much more coupe-like than the three.
So a little bit better aerodynamics,
but really the design is striking.
Yeah.
The no rear window allows us more headroom in the back,
much more comfortable seating, much nicer for the driver
not to have to be looking around.
More aerodynamic.
More space, a little bit more aerodynamic,
because we sit a little bit lower.
But really, it still has a good hip height.
You still feel comfortable in the car.
You don't feel like you're down to the bottom.
So in 2026, I know which one is coming after that, the five.
I mean, they've got progressively added by number.
So there are some vehicles which we will not
offer, at least in any kind of quantity in the US,
because they're produced in China.
Oh, OK.
And right now, with the tariffs, it's just a little change.
Maybe it will change.
It will change.
So the next car that we're talking about,
there are cars that I'm not going to talk about.
Yeah.
The next car that we're talking about is the seven.
And that's the car that was announced.
It'll be built on a Volvo Spot 3 platform in Slovakia.
Oh, wow.
And that's actually a really good US car.
It's a small compact SUV.
Yeah.
So putting that aside, all the politics
and all those kind of things,
I mean, some other executives I've talked to recently
have said, like, this is the most difficult time,
or I don't know if difficult is their work, but whatever.
It's not normal what's happening in the industry.
But at the same time, the future is bright,
like with this kind of technology and design
and then the global network of, I mean,
it's a powerful company when you can build in South Korea,
in China, in Slovakia, in Sweden.
So it's a good time, too, right?
You share the non-consumer-facing attributes
and then that allows you the flexibility
to move production to where you need to move.
So if we needed to move a top hat to a different plant,
we could do that in the future.
And of course, we have North America.
And that's what happened with this car specifically, right?
Correct.
It was originally a Chinese built car.
And that's why we had to wait for it in the US.
So we moved production to Busan, South Korea,
and that's where we built this car now.
We know who the owner is, and we shared that information.
Is someone here in Miami the new one?
Yeah, we do.
He's here, actually.
I think I just...
Well, somebody's in Miami.
Dirk Schmidt is the managing director for this store.
And it's owned by a gentleman named Juan Carlos Lucastro
from Argentina.
And he owns this store, he owns the Volvo store,
and he owns a group of stores that are in Argentina.
Amazing.
Well, thank you very much for the time
and congratulations.
Sorry, I'm going to keep you waiting.
No, it's okay.
So we're in Miami.
I know the traffic is horrible here.
So don't worry.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You need to let me know.
Thanks.
Thank you.
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