The French market is unlocked for Polestar, a Geely/Volvo brand after a deal has been reached with Stellantis. In a private agreement, of which we do not know the details, Stellantis allows Geely to use the Polestar brand in France and its logo. This puts an end to a brawl that has lasted almost five years, Le Monde reported that the complaints have been withdrawn.
To date, French consumers have only been able to find out about Polestar in their language through the Belgian website, because there is no French version for French people. Stellantis started a legal battle against Polestar over the apparent similarity of the Citroën and DS logos. Polestar represents the Pole Star, with two chevrons facing 180 degrees and joined by a vertex. Citroën has used two chevrons since 1919.
On the other hand, the DS Automobiles logo, which is a spin-off from Citroën, also makes use of chevrons, although less conventionally, as Korean designer Jin Joo wanted. Initially, DS was a line of Citroën models drawing on the precedent of the Citroën DS from the 1950s, but it ended up being an independent brand, but with strong synergies with Citroën. He was part of PSA until the merger with FCA in Stellantis.
A lawsuit managed to stop Polestar in 2020 in France, preventing the presence of the electric car brand in the country, and they also had to pay a fine of 150,000 euros. This has been the case since then, leading to the curious fact that their cars arrived earlier in our country, much less relevant as a market than France. And the presence of Polestar at a European level was at risk but speaking, people understood each other.
Right now Polestar only has one model for sale, the Polestar 2, a crossover-looking electric sedan made in China. Later the Polestar 3 will be available, a sedan that will be more expensive and will also come from China. The formal presentation will be made in October, and orders could begin to be entered there.
Citroën, DS, and Polestar are not fighting for the same customers, given the minimal overlap in their ranges. The 100% electric models of the French brands are not rivals of the Polestar 2 or the Polestar 3. And to tell the truth, there is not much confusion seeing their logos. However, NIO should be minimally concerned about this, because just take a look at their logo:
That single chevron is provoking the Stellantis legal department, and with more than five beers it could be mistaken for the Citroën logo. At the moment NIO does not have a specific date to access the French market.
