Polestar’s American road is narrowing fast. The Swedish electric vehicle maker will no longer be able to sell new vehicles in the United States from model year 2027 onward after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security declined to grant the company authorization under the Connected Vehicle Rule. The decision does not mean every Polestar in the country suddenly disappears from showrooms or service bays. Polestar says it will keep selling existing U.S. stock of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 and will continue supporting customers through its service network, but the bigger message is hard to miss (software, data, and ownership are now just as important as range and charging speed). Why Polestar was blocked At the center of the fight is the Connected Vehicle Rule, a U.S. policy aimed at keeping certain China-linked and Russia-linked vehicle software and hardware out of American passenger vehicles. The Commerce Department says the rule is about national security, because modern cars can collect sensitive data and connect to the outside world through systems such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, satellite, and telematics modules. In practical terms, that means a car is no longer judged only by where its tires touch the road. The rule can also look at who controls the manufacturer, where important software is designed or maintained, and whether a company has a “sufficient nexus” to China or Russia. That is where Polestar ran into trouble. Polestar is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, but it is majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding, a detail that put the brand directly in the path of U.S. scrutiny. The 2027 deadline matters The key date is model year 2027. Under the Commerce Department’s rule, software-related prohibitions take effect for model year 2027, while hardware-related restrictions arrive later, for model year 2030 or January