Polestar Resumes Exports of China-Made Polestar 2 to Canada in September Under Import Quotas

Polestar plans to resume exports of its China-made Polestar 2 to the Canadian market in September 2024. This move follows Canada’s implementation in January 2024 of an import quota system for Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), which replaced the previous 100% surtax on imports of Chinese new-energy passenger vehicles and established an annual quota of 49,000 units. Polestar Canada has confirmed it will utilize this quota to reintroduce the Polestar 2. Exports of the Polestar 2 to Canada had been suspended since the beginning of 2024 due to high tariffs. To date, over 7,300 Polestar 2 vehicles are already registered and on Canadian roads. Reservations for the 2027-model-year Polestar 2 opened on June 3, with deliveries expected to begin in September. The vehicle is a hatchback EV with an EPA-estimated range of 447 kilometers and a starting price of CAD 72,700 (including a CAD 2,800 destination fee). Additionally, the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 SUVs are already available for sale in Canada. Under the Canadian government’s plan, 24,500 Chinese-made EVs will be allowed into the country by August 2024; an additional 24,500 units will be permitted between September 2026 and February 2027; and starting in March 2027, the annual quota will increase by 6.5% to 52,185 units. As of now, 2,910 Chinese-made EVs have entered Canada under this quota system. Besides Polestar, Tesla resumed exports of Model 3 vehicles from its Shanghai factory to Canada in May. Several other automakers also plan to leverage their China-based production capacity and the import quota to enter or expand their presence in the Canadian market. These include Chinese brands such as BYD, Chery, and Geely, as well as multinational automakers like Nissan, which intends to export 3,000–4,000 affordable all-electric vehicles annually from China to Canada. Industry observers anticipate that competition for quota allocations will intensify significantly by early 2025.