Polestar didn’t get recalled, didn’t get sued into oblivion, and hasn’t gone bankrupt. It just got told by the U.S. government that it can’t sell new cars here past the 2027 model year, and its response has been to slash prices on what’s left in the showroom by as much as $25,000. That’s not marketing spin. That’s a company trying to move metal before the clock runs out. The mechanism here is easy to miss on first read. On June 25, 2026, Polestar filed a report with the SEC telling investors that the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security declined to grant it an authorization under the Connected Vehicle Rule to keep selling vehicles in America starting with the 2027 model year. Existing 2025 Polestar 3 and 2026 Polestar 4 inventory is unaffected and can still be sold, serviced, and warrantied. What ends is Polestar’s ability to bring anything new into the country after that. The Connected Vehicle Rule itself predates this specific decision by about a year and a half. The Bureau of Industry and Security finalized it in January 2025 and it took effect that March, and it regulates software and hardware rather than sheet metal. Vehicles under 10,001 pounds fall under two deadlines: automakers owned or controlled by Chinese or Russian interests lose the right to sell model-year 2027 vehicles running covered software, and by model year 2030 the ban extends to importing the connectivity hardware itself, things like telematics control units and cellular modules that let a car communicate outside the vehicle. Automakers who aren’t violating those rules still have to file annual paperwork proving it. Here’s the part that should annoy anyone who assumed this was about where a car gets bolted together: Polestar 3 rolls off the line in Ridgeville, South