A car dealer at Sortland bets on a new brand: – It’s something the customers have been asking for

From 1 January 2025, you can test drive, buy and have a brand new Polestar delivered to you at Bil i Nord Sortland.

– This is something that the customers have been asking for, says general manager Per Ivar Andersen.

Since 2021, Bil i Nord has been a service workshop for Polestar. So far the brand is only represented in the country with its own showroom in Tromsø. Polestar is now switching to selling cars through traditional dealers, including at Sortland.

– It won’t be so much of a commotion, besides the fact that customers will now see, try and buy the cars from this brand in our store, says Andersen.

– It is fun that we are now growing as sellers of these cars. I think there are a number of good people who will lead this brand in Vesterålen, he said.

Nordland and Troms all

Bil i Nord will start in 2025 as a Polestar dealer in Tromsø, Finnsnes, Harstad, Sortland, Svolvær, Bodø, Mo i Rana and Mosjøen.

– This means that we are the only seller of the brand in the north of Norway, says the director of the group Kenneth Evjen.

Polestar is owned by Chinese carmaker Geely, which also owns Volvo. The models are developed in Europe and several of them share a technical base with Volvo models.

– We feel that Polestar models are not in direct competition with Volvo models. So we have an even wider range of car models to offer. At the same time, our workshop and service department are already familiar with the cars, says Per Ivar Andersen.

The electric car Polestar 2 has been sold in Norway since 2020. This year, the brand has started selling the sporty electric SUV Polestar 3 and the luxury sedan Polestar 4.

– And more models are on the way, says Andersen.

Mostly used for sale

He reports good conversion numbers for last year, and even better so far this year, for Bil i Nord Sortland.

– Up to the month of September, we had a turnover of 137.4 million. That’s 7 million better than at the same time last year. In October, we delivered 48 cars, including new and used ones.

– We sell the most used cars. We are now in a period where there is a good demand for used cars, and we buy a lot of used cars from all over the country. So far this year, we have delivered a total of 71 new cars, while in the same period we have delivered 304 used cars. That’s how it’s always been with us. We probably focus more on usage than the other vendors, says Andersen.

It mostly goes for the new used cars, where the buyer still has something left of the new car warranty.

Although new car sales now include only electric cars, 99 percent of the used cars sold at Bil i Nord Sortland are either diesel or petrol cars.

– Our best selling new car is the Volvo EX30, which is fully electric. It suits many people and is the cheapest model from Volvo.

The car dealer based in the Vestmarka business district currently has 15 employees. For a long time, Bil i Nord had plans to build a new car dealership on a piece of land just south of the Sortlandsbrua, but this has now been abandoned.

– Most of the business happens online today. We sell many cars without ever meeting the customer. So location and a large garage may no longer matter, says Andersen.

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