Connected Vehicle Rule bars Polestar from the U.S. — but clears Geely sibling Volvo

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has denied Polestar the authorization it needs to keep selling cars in the U.S. starting with model year 2027, effectively shutting the brand out of the American market. The denial rests on Polestar’s ownership: it’s a subsidiary of China’s Geely, and the Connected Vehicle Rule restricts Chinese-linked software and hardware in cars on national-security grounds. The twist is that Volvo — also Geely-owned — received the same authorization in May, and neither company says it understands why one was approved and the other rejected.

The inconsistency is what makes this notable. Polestar had specifically moved Polestar 3 production from Chengdu to Volvo’s South Carolina plant to dodge tariffs, and that car now rolls off the same line as the Volvo EX90. Despite localizing manufacturing, Polestar still got blocked, leaving its U.S. production and February relaunch plans in limbo while Volvo’s parallel investments proceed untouched. Both companies declined to speculate on the fallout.

The piece frames this as a precedent problem rather than a one-off. With BYD and other Chinese automakers already walled out of the U.S., and Hyundai hit with tariffs and a federal raid despite a $26 billion domestic investment, the author argues the government is now picking winners and losers among automakers with no transparent or consistent logic — a discretionary kill switch that should worry anyone counting on predictable, rules-based market access.