Sedan, electric, AWD/All-Wheel Drive, built in China. Owner complaints on file from Jan 2, 2022 to Aug 31, 2026.
Owner complaints about this model year, by the year they were filed with NHTSA.
Owner complaints by component. Hover or focus a bar for the crash, fire, injury or death count.
Check a specific vehicle by VIN on NHTSA's site: a campaign may cover only part of a model year's production.
| Campaign | Filed | Subject | Component | Vehicles | Remedy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25V-615 | Sep 15, 2025 | Rearview camera image may not display when the vehicle is placed in reverse | Back-over prevention | 27,816 | Software update |
| 25V-280 | Apr 25, 2025 | Rearview camera image may not display when the vehicle is placed in reverse | Back-over prevention | 27,816 | Software update |
| 24V-477 | Jun 26, 2024 | Infotainment Head Unit (IHU) software may prevent the rearview camera image from displaying | Back-over prevention | 25,825 | Software update |
| 21V-110 | Feb 24, 2021 | Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) microprocessor may reset and cause the high voltage system to disconnect | Electrical system | 3,457 | Software update |
The full text of every complaint filed with NHTSA about this model year, newest first. Complaints are filed by owners and are not verified by NHTSA; NHTSA removes personal details before publishing.
305 complaints on file, page 1 of 16.
When getting into the vehicle to drive, there are instances where one is unable to put the vehicle into drive. Center driver screen displays an issue “remove charge cable before start” and there is no charging cable connected to the vehicle. I have been put in situations in which I have been late to events, deliveries I had to drop off have been late, and I have been stuck/stranded in random places. Not just the grocery store parking lot or even at home, but peoples driveways while performing deliveries. I would imagine other drivers have been in similar situations. Polestar knows this is an issue and I was quoted $900 for a software fix (which could truly not lead to the fix if there actually is a hardware issue). I feel this should not be an issue I have to PAY for especially if it is simply software based. I believe a recall needs to be initiated to help myself and other drivers avoid having to pay for this issue.
NHTSA complaint 11760971Driver information display has not been turning on when car wakes from sleep on hot days, typically over 105 degrees and parked for over five hours. Driver unable to see current speed, current state of charge, etc. Display turns on, with no issues, the next morning or after the car is parked in the shade for more than 30 mins.
NHTSA complaint 11755691Electric vehicle DC charging pins have defective insulator on its tip. The insulator freely rotates, is loose, and one has fallen off or can get stuck in charger handles. The easily detachable insulator, if not present, can cause shorting and arcing of high voltage at the charge port. Polestar has specified the charge port is an important safety related component in communications with them. With the defective charge port DC insulator easily falling off, this could lead to electrocution, fire at charge port due to melting pins from arcing, damage to charging station plugs. The service center the vehicle has been taken to claimed damage was caused by a defective charging handle at charger but did not have any proof that was the cause. Google search on forums has shown this is a common fault and show electrical melting of the DC charger pins. There were no warning signs there was anything wrong till the insulator fell off. Once one insulator fell off, that’s when the remaining insulator was found to be loose and rotates freely. Vehicle is available for inspection if requested.
NHTSA complaint 11754613When starting the vehicle and placing it in reverse, the center screen was frozen and did not show the backup camera or other sfaety information. Safety was put at risk because reverse visiblity / backover prevention were impaired. Other functions such as reverse auto brake were likely unavailable, or a least unmonitored (rear cross traffic allert was definitely unavailable as it depends on the center screen). This was resolved by re-parking the vehicle and rebooting the infotainment system / center screen. It has not been independently reproduced or inspected, as it's presenting as random flakiness and the driver stopped and took troubleshooting steps (out of an abundance of caution). There were no warnings or other issues, though it does correlate with switching diriver profiles and may be yet another safety issue caused by the vehicle's underpowered IHU. (The IHU was upgraded for 2026 models, and is backwards compatible, but no upgrades have been made available in the US)
NHTSA complaint 11747674There was as turn signal malfunction. It is not clear if the issue was purely internal or external, or confirned to the sound versus also impacting the lights. The turn signal sound was slow / irregular, missing beats, and appeared to slow down and catch up. it is unlclear if safety was at risk as I can't see the outside of the vehicle to verify whether this was just an audio issue or a signal issue. It hasn't been independently reproduced, and can't be consistently reproduced, though there is a correlation with switching users (possibly due to the underpowered IHU). The only other symptom was an unusably slow IHU (like taking more than a minute to pull up recent destinations on the center screen).
NHTSA complaint 11746122The rear view camera malfunctioned, despite complying with the recent recall. It is available for inspection upon request. Safety was compromised by reduced rear visibility due to the lack of a rear view camera. This is an intermittent issue, not reliably reproducible for a dealer or service center. There has been no third party inspection, and no warning. The failure correlated with switching drivers; this may be part of oingoing issues with the underpowered IHU not handling driver switching well. If you are trying to reproduce the issue on a sample vehicle, I encourage swapping a few times between two drivers.
NHTSA complaint 11746121Polestar has issued the 3rd recall for issues with the Rear Camera not responding quickly enough on vehicle start up. They have claimed they will provide a software fix but that is what they claimed the last 2 times without any improvement in the operation of the camera. They offer a paid upgrade to a newer CPU that actually fixes the issue but they do not want to spend the money to provide this as a free upgrade to actually fix this problem. They should be forced to offer the hardware fix as the software fixes up to this point have not worked.
NHTSA complaint 11744880Car was charging normally and all of a sudden it stopped charging both level 2 and DC. No warning nothing and seems like a common occurrence in this car and after warranty is over. Have ready many have this happen to them. Shop says that it’s the OBC needs to be replaced which isn’t a cheap replacement. Usually a car would give a warning and not completely die on you. Most say that Dc would work and not the level 2. Which should be part of the the propulsion related part and covered on the 8year/100k warranty. But they say it’s not.
NHTSA complaint 11742412Since software update 5.x the behicle it throws a false "Disconnect Charging Cable" message on the dashboard display even though no charging cable is attached to the vehicle. This leaves the vehicle immobilized. Multiple instances since approx [XXX]. I checked codes and there is a fault code VCU1-U116E00. Further research indicated that prior reports to nhtda resulted in 2 seperate service bulletins. My guess is that prior 4.x fix was not included in 5.x major software update [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint 11741181A new software update was recently released to fix a previous recall of the backup camera. Ever since that version 5 of the software was released, the display unit computer randomly resets during the drive. During the report, all blind spot, cruise control, lane sensing, sensors, etc are not working and take multiple minutes to turn on and the activate.
NHTSA complaint 11737480Persistent unresolved front-suspension defect on a 2022 Polestar 2 (Polestar Approved CPO, purchased 03/20/2025). Vehicle pulls right under normal driving on flat, level pavement — a directional control hazard requiring constant steering correction at highway speed. A front-suspension noise over bumps developed after recent repairs. The Polestar-authorized dealer (University Volvo / Polestar Charlotte) made FIVE repair attempts on this same complaint without resolving it: 10/23/2025; 11/04/2025; 04/01/2026; 04/15/2026; and 04/17–04/27/2026. Five alignments performed. Both upper strut bearings replaced 04/15/2026 (Inv #XXX , $1,499.44). On the next visit the dealer replaced a control arm and did additional shock and bearing work as no-charge line items (Inv #263452, $279.19) — implicitly acknowledging the prior repair was inadequate. Within one block of leaving the dealer on 04/15, vehicle developed a new front-right rattle that did not exist before. Dealer's own technician notes on Inv #XXX state verbatim: "test drove vehicle and could not verify any pulling while driving" — repair performed WITHOUT confirmed symptom reproduction. As of 05/04/2026 (six days after pickup), vehicle is again pulling right and now has a NEW noise over bumps. Condition is materially worse than before any repair. This is the subject of Polestar Technical Journal TJ XXX (NHTSA document MC-XXX-0001), which acknowledges creaking/knocking from the upper front suspension on Polestar 2 MY 2021–2024 and states a redesigned upper bearing was released Q4 2023, with a further redesign in week 20 of 2024. Polestar has acknowledged in writing this component was defective and redesigned TWICE. Polestar Customer Engagement has refused to escalate to a contact with authority to remedy. Filing for ODI trend analysis, federal record of the defect and failed repairs, and to flag a known-defect CPO sale unremedied under warranty. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint 11735460The contact owns a 2022 Polestar 2. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked and turned off, the door locks became inoperable. The contact was unable to enter the vehicle without using the key fob. The contact stated that on one occasion, entry was only possible through the trunk after manually engaging the trunk latch. The contact further stated that the failure recurred, and during a subsequent incident, both the doors and the trunk latch were inoperable, preventing access to the vehicle. The contact had to wait an extended period of time before being able to enter the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 76,000.
NHTSA complaint 11734937a recent software update (5.0.10) altered the acceleration on the car. There is now a 2+ second delay to acceleration to the car once the pedal is depressed if you're not wearing your seatbelt. I did not see this listed in the update info before I installed the over-the-air update. After the update, I have had several near accidents (side impact) as I try to pull out into traffic and the car fails to accelerate as expected. I only learned about the "feature" after calling a dealer to see if I needed to come in for repairs. This, IMO, is a seriously dangerous feature/update to add after purchase. I am used to the immediate acceleration and had this feature been present at purchase I probably would have considered another car. Not because I am opposed to wearing a seatbelt, but because I don't always wear if if running to the store, etc. This WILL cause an accident to someone at somepoint and should be removed.
NHTSA complaint 11733560I took car to dealer to get latest software update version 4.2.13 since my car hasnt been received updates OTA. After the update, the cars accelerating from a stand still had a lag of almost 1 to 2 seconds which is dangerous. I went online to find out several polestar 2 owners complaining about the same issue. My car has the performance upgrade which has a 0-60 time in 4 seconds. Now after this issue, car is hitting 0-60 in under 6.5 seconds. I was in a situation yesterday where i backed out of my driveway and saw a car behind me coming in very fast, I floored the acceleration pedal and the car did not move until 1.3 seconds. This is extremely unsafe and needs immediate attention. Before this software update I had no issues in acceleration and have owned the car for over 2 years. Please help.
NHTSA complaint 11732202The backup camera continues to fail to turn on. The car will intermittently report “Camera is temporarily unavailable”. This persists for minutes at a time. I cannot figure out how to get the camera to turn on when this happens. It already received the OTA “fix” for this but it did not fix the issue.
NHTSA complaint 11728716The vehicle recently updated to software version P4.2.13 after this update the vehicle sporadically losses the ability to accelerate fully from a stop, it just creeps forward. When your truning onto a street from a stop, or forward at a srop sign or ligjt sometime the vehicle accelerates normally, but what seems like about 50% of the time it just creeps forward a couple seconds then takes off. You never know what it's going to do as far as acceleration. This is incredibly dangerous when turning/merging into traffic from a stop, its a roll of the dice whether the car will just creep forward or accelerate.normally.
NHTSA complaint 11726543What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Rear camera does not show up when vehicle is placed in reverse. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? Inability to use rear camera presenting a larger risk to others while the vehicle is in reverse. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Yes, this has been part of multiple recalls with an attempt to update through updates. Dealership advised it is a known issue an does not feel that Polestar will be able to fix this through an update but has not offered any other fixes. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No
NHTSA complaint 11725231The rear camera fails to display the image on the dashboard/screen with either significant delay or "camera temporarily unavailable". Safety is at risk as this would increase chances of crashing in setting with reliability on camera. This problem is reproducible. My vehicle has not been inspected yet. No warning lamps or messages.
NHTSA complaint 11724427Rearview camera lag then disconnect. Ceases functioning until restart.
NHTSA complaint 11723462The camera function occasionally will be unavailable, sometimes when the car starts up and other times in the middle of reversing, and the visibility is greatly reduced, posing a greater risk for any pedestrians. Looking at online forums, this seems to be a relatively common issue that is only solved with a reset of the car's infotainment system. However, it also seems like the processor that is running that infotainment system is underpowered and could be the source of the camera failing to work as frequently as it does. Also looking online it seems that there is a cpu upgrade that is available in Europe, but seeing as how the camera processing function is heavily handicapped and poses safety concerns, it should be recalled and upgraded to alleviate these issues.
NHTSA complaint 11723282Technical service bulletins and other notices the manufacturer sent to dealers. A bulletin is not a recall; the 60 most recent are listed.