Polestar barred from US sales under new connected car import rule

This is a regulatory hammer, not a market decision — Polestar loses US access not because of anything it did commercially, but because its supply chain runs through China, which now triggers a federal prohibition on connected vehicle hardware and software. For a brand that was actively trying to establish itself in America, the timing is brutal: it had product, it had dealers, and now it has a legal wall. What makes this worth watching is the precedent — Polestar is unlikely to be the only brand with Chinese manufacturing ties that finds itself on the wrong side of this rule. The connected-car definition is broad enough that this could reshape which vehicles are even eligible for the US market going forward.