EVwire brief: Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller has confirmed the brand is reversing its heavily touch-centric interior approach after sustained customer feedback.
Speaking exclusively to Autocar, he said:
“Customer feedback is overwhelmingly clear: they want buttons back. So we will bring buttons back.”
It is one of the clearest public admissions yet from a modern EV brand that the industry may have pushed touchscreen minimalism too far.
Polestar owners have been outspoken about their vehicles’ buttons, or lack thereof
Context:
Polestar maintains a direct agency retail model and a 60,000-strong owner community. Lohscheller stated that this allows the company to get a clear pulse of its customers’ sentiments.
“We have very close contact to customers. We have an agency (retail) model, so we go directly to customers, and we have a very big community who tell us their views, so we are very, very close to them.
“Customers are very outspoken about that (buttons). They say ‘we want more buttons’. It’s that simple. And yes, we will do buttons.”
The first visible change arrives with the updated Polestar 3 next year, which will replace its four unmarked touch-sensitive steering wheel pads with clearer physical buttons. Upcoming models including the Polestar 5, 7, and next-generation Polestar 2 are expected to follow suit.
The Polestar 3 SUV will be the first model to receive more buttons
Polestar is far from alone. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Ferrari have also been reintroducing physical buttons in recent years.
Polestar’s shift is particularly notable given the brand’s long-standing commitment to Scandinavian minimalism since the Polestar 2 launched in 2020.
Lohscheller also stated that Polestar is addressing software glitches and ADAS complaints as quickly as possible through OTA updates, with “quality is the highest priority.”
On autonomous driving, he was refreshingly grounded: “I don't think we have people saying 'we want Level 4 autonomy tomorrow.'”
Source: Autocar UK
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