Scandinavian math: Polestar will replace the 2 with a new car called 7

Launched in 2020, and extensively updated for 2024, the Polestar 2 got its name by landing as the young company’s second model. It won’t be replaced by a second-generation 2. Instead, its successor will be Polestar’s seventh car, and it will be named — you guessed it — 7.

Speaking to British magazine Autocar, company boss Thomas Ingenlath confirmed that 7 comes after 2 in the Polestar range. “We will not replace the Polestar 2 with a Polestar 2. It will be the Polestar 7,” he announced. The model is tentatively due out in the late 2020s.

Changing the name of a car from one generation to the next has pros and cons. On one hand, there’s no name recognition; Volkswagen’s Golf has gone through eight generations over the course of 50 years, for example, and buyers know exactly what the nameplate stands for. On the other hand, launching a new nameplate gives Polestar more possibilities as it develops the 2’s successor; it’s a clean break, in a way.

“As much as we might build a very similar car, because it has a different number we won’t have this natural trap where we’re boxed into that concept of what the car had been,” Ingenlath told Autocar. “At some point, you get into a strange situation when you’re in double-digit generations and it gets really questionable.” He added that it’s too early to tell what the 7 will share with the 2 and how it will stand out. The model will occupy roughly the same spot in the Polestar range as its predecessor, however; it won’t be positioned above the upcoming 6.

Polestar’s naming policy makes it hard to predict what the 8 will look like. It could be a follow-up to the 3, for example, or it could be a new model instead of a replacement for an existing car. However, Ingenlath previously told Autoblog a model positioned below the 2 is unlikely to see the light that awaits at the end of a production line because Polestar doesn’t need to stretch as far downmarket as some of its German rivals.