Polestar recalls its newest EV for the second time this month – TechCrunch
Polestar, the electric vehicle brand that was spun out of Volvo Car Group, has issued another recall for its newest electric vehicle.
The company is voluntarily recalling nearly 4,600 vehicles over what has been described as a faulty inverters, Reuters reported. Polestar said in a statement that all affected customers will be notified, beginning November 2.
“The recall involves the replacement of faulty inverters on most delivered customer vehicles,” Polestar said in its statement, adding that the inverters transform the stored energy in the battery into the power required by the electric motors.
The required hardware can be done in a single service visit, according to the company. Vehicles in North America were not affected by the recall, a spokesperson told TechCrunch. Vehicles in Switzerland were also not affected.
The company also said the vehicles require service for its High Voltage Coolant Heater (HVCH). The HVCH is responsible for both cabin and high voltage battery heating. Faulty parts fitted to early production cars need to be replaced, the company said. The total number of affected vehicles that are delivered to customers is 3,150.
“As part of the actions required by the recall and service campaign, all vehicles will also be upgraded to be compatible with forthcoming Over-The-Air (OTA) updates,” the company said. “This will allow Polestar to push new software directly to Polestar 2 vehicles when OTA updates are available.”
Polestar, which in 2017 was recast as an electric performance brand aimed at producing exciting and fun-to-drive electric vehicles, started production this spring of its all-electric Polestar 2 vehicle at a plant in China. The production start was a milestone for the company that is jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding of China.
However, the company has faced some early headwinds. Polestar made its last recall on Oct. 2 after several cars had abruptly stopped while driving. “This happened in very, very rare cases,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said during an interview at TC Sessions: Mobility 2020, which was held in October. Ingenlath said at the time that none of the reported cases happened in the United States, nor were any of the affected vehicles involved in an accident. That issue was fixed with a software update.
