I think it's more complicated than that - it was certainly owned entirely by Volvo as recently as 2015 and seems to share basically all engineering resources with Volvo. Seems like a funny attempt somewhere to make it seem like something other than Volvo - not sure why as Volvo has a reputation that's fairly decent already, if a bit dull and parental. I guess that's why Polestar is separate - to be more fashionable. Polestar still 'engineer' Volvos - I think it was at some point like BMW's 'M' thing - like a badge?

Polestar was a firm that did trim and racing cars for Volvo. Volvo did aquire Polestar and a few years later they spun it out to be a ev-company owned 50/50 by Geely and Volvo (and volvo is owned by geely). The cars are designed in Sweden but built in China.

The founders of Polestar now runs the Cyan racing company which is the official racing partner of volvo and geely...

I interpreted it as not wanting to cannibalize ICE Volvo/existing model sales with EVs. Ford's Mach-E is on the other end of the spectrum.

Volvo have committed to being a 100% electric manufacturer this decade:

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressrele...

But its is something other, like Audi is different than VW and Porsche, although their share a lot of ressources.

A big difference is that Audi was an established car maker that had made a lot of cars long before VW bought them. Polestar wasn't a car maker before being bought by Geely and has never made car independently of Volvo/Geely.

I think it might have to do with the Polestar 1 being a higher-end sports car.

Similar idea to how Lexus is an independent company from Toyota.