Polestar Dealer Matthew Haiken Faults the Brand, Not the Ban, as Geely's US Future Dims

Since Polestar announced in late June that the US Commerce Department had denied its connected-vehicle authorization, the conversation among its 32 US dealers has shifted from "what happened" to "who's responsible."

Matthew Haiken owns four dealerships under the Prestige Collection Auto Group in northern New Jersey, including the Polestar Short Hills store he's operated since 2021. His answer to that question is unambiguous. "I am very frustrated in Polestar, globally," Haiken told Wired. "I think they really dropped the ball, and I blame them. I don't blame the government."

That's a notable position. Haiken isn't arguing the connected-vehicle rule is unjust or that the national security rationale is pretextual. He's arguing Polestar had a path through the process and failed to walk it.

The Volvo Problem

His frustration has a specific basis. Volvo, which is also majority-owned by China's Geely Holding and its founder Li Shufu, received Commerce Department authorization in March. Volvo said it had held "constructive discussions" with the department about its "governance, technology and data security."

Polestar is a separate company but shares the same parent. The fact that one Geely-owned brand got through and the other didn't strongly suggests the outcome turned on what each company did inside the authorization process, not on the underlying Chinese ownership structure alone.

When asked about the discrepancy, a Polestar spokesperson told Wired the company "cannot comment on how legislation applies to other manufacturers." This lack of explanation leaves the question unanswered.

The Rule Itself

The connected-vehicle rule was finalized under the Biden administration in January 2025. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo articulated the rationale plainly at the time: internet-connected automotive cameras, microphones, and GPS equipment in vehicles made by adversary nations create surveillance and security risks. "It doesn't take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of US citizens," Raimondo said.

The rule restricts Chinese- and Russian-made automotive hardware and software. It isn't a blanket ban on Chinese-owned companies. Authorization was available, and Volvo obtained it.

The Fair Counter-Argument

There's a legitimate concern: the rule creates an opaque authorization process where similar companies with similar ownership structures reach opposite outcomes, and the criteria for what constitutes satisfactory "governance, technology and data security" are not publicly defined. Dealers like Haiken invested millions on the assumption that authorization was achievable. If the process is a black box, it's reasonable to ask whether the standards are applied consistently and whether smaller or less politically connected brands face structural disadvantages in navigating it. That concern doesn't require questioning the national security rationale to be valid.

Haiken himself stops short of making that argument. He thinks Polestar should have engaged more aggressively and earlier, the way Volvo apparently did.

What Dealers Are Left With

The 32 US Polestar dealerships represent a network that built out physical infrastructure, trained staff, and cultivated customer bases over several years. Haiken says he and the other owners have collectively invested "many millions" in the brand. Polestar has said it will stop selling vehicles in the US beginning with the 2027 model year.

That doesn't mean the current inventory disappears overnight. The 2025 and 2026 model years can still be sold. But the pipeline closes, and without new product, the business case for maintaining dedicated Polestar showrooms collapses.

Haiken's customer base has been through a full cycle of disruption since 2021: a Covid-era inventory crunch that briefly pushed used EV prices above new ones, the $7,500 federal tax credit that drove a buying surge, the subsequent rollback of that credit, a state-level credit cut in New Jersey, and then a wave of Tesla-averse buyers who came in after Elon Musk's visibility in the Trump administration made some EV shoppers look elsewhere. Each wave produced opportunity and uncertainty in sequence. This one lands differently because it doesn't reverse.

"It's so unfortunate," Haiken said. "It's hard for my customers who have been reaching out; it's hard for my staff."

The Open Question

Polestar has not publicly stated whether it intends to re-engage the Commerce Department authorization process or whether the late-June denial is final. Volvo's successful authorization demonstrates the process isn't closed to Geely-affiliated companies. Whether Polestar can reopen discussions before the 2027 cutoff, and what it would have to commit to on data governance to satisfy Commerce, remains unanswered as of July 3, 2026.