We’ve heard so much from Apple and Google about electric, autonomous and almost flying cars that it was time for automotive brands to respond. That’s what Polestar is up to.
The Polestar brand was created by the Chinese company Geely from a sub-brand of the Swedish manufacturer Volvo, which also belongs to Geely. Polestar currently sells only one vehicle, an electric car shortened to the Polestar 2. The company plans to launch three more models by 2025, the Polestar 3, 4 and 5.
Geely was founded by a Chinese businessman named Li Shufu. Mr. Li goes by the name Eric Li outside of China, which is quite common among Chinese business people with an international presence. Last year, Eric Li acquired a majority stake in Chinese phone maker Meizu.
What Polestar and Meizu have announced in recent days is the desire to jointly develop a first smartphone designed by the electric car manufacturer’s Swedish designers. The Polestar Phone is expected to be officially launched in China next month.
We know very little about this phone at the moment, but we do know that it responds to a request from the Chinese government to its industrial giants to make new efforts to reach Chinese consumers. Meizu and Geely are therefore adding a phone to their catalog that will try to attract people who may have been looking at a phone like the Apple iPhone or even a phone with Android system from Google.
Because that’s the other part of this news: that in addition to the Polestar Phone, Meizu and DreamSmart are working on developing a software called Polestar OS that will replace Android on their phones. This is also fine a little further on the automotive side. On board Polestar vehicles sold outside China, the Swedish brand will continue to use the automotive version of Google’s Android system, but in China the group plans to use a modified version of Polestar OS.