Polestar and Volvo share a Chinese owner, a Swedish badge and a South Carolina assembly line. However, only Volvo will be selling new cars in the United States from the 2027 model year. Commerce does not publish its authorization decisions, and Volvo‘s own account describes a private, case-by-case negotiation. Volvo cleared the rule a month before the denial reached Polestar, yet the gap between the two siblings, not either ruling alone, is what now hangs over the brand’s US exit. That gap is being pressed by Polestar‘s dealers and former executives, the people the company itself will not echo. The Shared Ground Polestar and Volvo sit under the same controlling shareholder, China’s Geely and its founder Li Shufu, who together hold about two-thirds of the EV maker. PSD Investment, Li’s personal holding company, is the largest single owner at roughly 44%, while Volvo keeps about 16%. Both are publicly traded, Volvo on Nasdaq Stockholm and Polestar on the Nasdaq under the ticker PSNY. That ownership placed both brands inside the Connected Vehicle Rule’s definition of a manufacturer subject to Chinese control, the same test each had to clear. Finalized in January 2025, the rule bars carmakers owned or controlled by China or Russia from selling connected vehicles in the US, whatever the assembly location. Ridgeville, South Carolina, builds the Polestar 3 on the same line as the Volvo EX90, with output consolidated there earlier this year. Volvo has put about $1.3 billion into that site, which runs a body shop, a paint shop, a battery-pack line and final assembly and employs more than 2,000 workers. Only Volvo operates the plant, and Polestar keeps no American factory of its own, leaning on that workforce to build its single US model. So a US-built Polestar, rolling off the same line as an