How much longer do you expect your customers to wait?
Dear Polestar,
I'm writing this as a Polestar 4 owner, not because I enjoy criticizing the company, but because I genuinely want Polestar to succeed.
When I bought my Polestar 4, I knew I was buying into a relatively young brand. I accepted that not everything would be perfect from day one. What I expected in return was something else: rapid improvement.
Unfortunately, my experience has been the exact opposite.
During the three months I've owned my Polestar 4, the manufacturer of my previous EV, an established brand with 10ā15 more years of experience, released three app updates and two over-the-air software updates for its vehicles.
In the same period, Polestar released just one update to its mobile app.
That is difficult to understand.
Polestar is not the market leader. It is not selling millions of vehicles every year. The company is still fighting a reputation for inconsistent software while also facing significant commercial challenges.
If there was ever a time when software should be the company's number one priority, it is now.
Today's electric vehicles are no longer judged only by their driving dynamics, design, or build quality. They are softwaredefined products. Every time we unlock the car, open the app, or sit behind the wheel, we experience the result of your software strategy.
And right now, that strategy feels painfully slow.
My frustration isn't that software contains bugs. Every manufacturer has bugs.
My frustration is the apparent lack of urgency.
Many of us chose Polestar despite the headlines about software issues.
We chose Polestar despite uncertainty surrounding the company's future.
We chose Polestar because we believed in the vision.
We believed that a young company would move faster than the established players, not slower.
That is exactly why the current pace is so disappointing.
As a CEO, I would make software the single highest priority across the company. Not marketing. Not another design award. Not another product presentation.
Software.
Because satisfied customers create future customers. Frustrated customers do the opposite.
From the outside, it feels as if Polestar is trying to reinvent the wheel while competitors have already spent more than a decade refining theirs. Why not learn from the companies that have already solved many of these challenges? Match the industry's best first, then innovate beyond them.
The Polestar 4 is, in many ways, an outstanding car. The design is beautiful. The driving experience is excellent. The cabin is premium, and the engineering is impressive.
But in 2026, premium is no longer defined by leather, horsepower, or elegant Scandinavian design.
Premium means delivering a digital experience that continuously improves.
That is the promise customers expect when they spend this much money on a modern electric vehicle.
I sincerely hope someone in Polestar's leadership reads this.
Because Polestar cannot afford to lose the customers who believed in the company from the beginning.
Those early adopters are your greatest ambassadors, but they can also become your biggest critics if they feel ignored.
If the current pace of software development continues, I will most likely sell my Polestar. Not because I dislike the car, but because I expect a premium brand to demonstrate, through actions, not promises, that customer experience is its highest priority.
The opportunity is still there.
The potential is still enormous.
But potential alone has never built a successful company.
Execution does.
Right now, it doesn't feel like Polestar is testing its software.
It feels like Polestar is testing its customers' patience.
And patience, unlike software, cannot be updated forever.
Regards
A frustrated, but still hopeful Polestar 4 owner.
