Electric-Vehicle Maker Polestar Is Making a Smartphone as a Companion to Its Cars

Electric-vehicle maker Polestar has a new product, and it isn’t another car. This time, it’s a smartphone. The Swedish automaker said Tuesday that it plans to release a phone in China that’s designed around software adapted from a program by partner and corporate cousin Xingji Meizu Group, a phone-maker.

The smartphone, which offers up to 1TB of storage and a 50-megapixel camera, is designed to act as a companion to Polestar’s in-car infotainment system, including through a digital car key that’ll automatically “wake up” the car when a user is nearby. The company is taking orders now in China, charging roughly $1,019 for the device. 

Polestar representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about when the phone will launch or if it’ll be made available outside China.

At first glance, it may seem odd that a carmaker is releasing a smartphone, but this is far from the first time a company has attempted to jump between the two industries. 

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Apple famously spent a decade developing an EV, in addition to its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, before shutting down the project earlier this year. Alphabet, which owns Google, has also developed its own self-driving technology powering robotaxis in some US cities. Meanwhile, as Bloomberg noted in its article about the Polestar phone, Chinese tech giants Huawei and Xiaomi have begun to make their own cars that link with their devices.

“We also need our defensive measure as the auto industry incorporates more intelligent technologies and consumer electronics,” Xingji Meizu Chief Executive Officer Shen Ziyu told Bloomberg in an interview. Polestar is owned by Swedish carmaker Volvo and Chinese carmaker Geely.

In Chinese marketing materials, Polestar is promoting artificial intelligence technologies for the handset, powered in part by one of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chips. Polestar said its AI will be able to answer questions; edit and curate photos; and help users more easily reply to chat conversations.