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Polestar, a Geely-backed high-performance pure electric vehicle brand, has recently attracted considerable attention due to its extremely high battery replacement fees. A well-known Chinese automotive media personality, also the owner of a Polestar 2 model, damaged the battery pack during a car accident, and was required to pay expensive fees for its replacement during maintenance.

The vehicle owner accidentally hit an obstacle while driving, causing damage to headlights and chassis, and the panel was sunken inward. In the subsequent maintenance process, the owner was told by the 4S store that the bottom aluminum plate could not be replaced separately, so the whole battery pack needed to be replaced with a price tag as high as 540,000 yuan ($79,143). The figure was much higher than the suggested retail price of Polestar 2, which is between 257,800 yuan and 338,000 yuan.

Local media outlet Jiemian News learned from the official customer service staff of Polestar that they did not know the specific maintenance price, and could only help vehicle owners to make appointments for the store responsible for after-sales maintenance and providing specific maintenance fees. In addition, no car owners had called to them to ask about the official battery pack replacement price before.

A salesperson of a Polestar 4S shop in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province told Jiemian News that the current price of replacing the whole battery pack is about 400,000 yuan.

Polestar has an eight-year warranty rule for its vehicles’ batteries. According to the official website, pure EVs purchased within eight years or with a mileage of less than 160,000 km can enjoy warranty service, and any material defects of power batteries can be solved free of charge at Polestar’s authorized maintenance service centers.

The battery pack exchange prices of other new energy brands are not so exaggerated. The replacement price for the battery pack of XPeng‘s P7, P5, and G3 is about 110,000, 90,000 yuan, and 85,000 yuan respectively. Li Auto‘s Li ONE needs 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan for the service, while NIO‘s vehicles need 130,000 yuan to 140,000 yuan.

SEE ALSO: New Pure Electric Sports Car by Geely-backed Polestar to Enter Production

In addition, the quality of Polestar does not reassure consumers. In October and November 2020, Polestar launched two recalls for its Polestar 2 model due to quality problems. On March 23, 2021, Polestar recalled 2,031 Polestar 2s again because of the failure of core components such as power battery energy control module.

Gores Guggenheim, a special purpose acquisition company, and Polestar, a Swedish electric car company, announced Tuesday that they expect to close the merging of their businesses on June 23, subject to the former's stockholder approval.

Polestar, a Geely-backed high-performance pure electric vehicle brand, announced on August 16 that it will put the brand-new pure electric concept sports car Polestar 6 into production. The mass production model is expected to be launched in 2026.

Chinese media outlet im4S exposed some spy photos suspected of being a production version of the smart Concept #1 on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Wang Weibao, the head of Jidu Auto's intelligent driving division since August, said that their SIMU Car (simulated prototype car) is now under dynamic testing.

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