Elon Musk Swings Back At Polestar’s Super Bowl Ad Attack On Tesla

In its first Super Bowl ad, electric carmaker Polestar took the opportunity to take a few shots at its EV competitors, including Tesla (TSLA), which didn’t go unnoticed by CEO Elon Musk.

In the 30-second spot, called “No Compromises,” Polestar featured a series of phrases on-screen that seemingly hit back at its competition.

The phrases included “No compromises” and “No empty promises,” among other keywords preceded by the word “No.”

Polestar also featured “No conquering Mars,” seemingly in reference to Musk’s SpaceX program, which plans to land humans on Mars by 2026.

Musk’s response to the ad was to slam Polestar. In response to a Twitter user’s tweet of the ad, Musk posted a laughing face emoji.

The Twitter user had posted that Polestar had reportedly paid $7 million for the 30-second Super Bowl ad.

Also included in the ad were “No dieselgate” and “No dirty secrets” in an apparent dig at Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal.

Polestar, which was launched in 2017 by Volvo Car AB and Geely Holding, is expected to go public during the first half of 2022 in a deal with Gores Guggenheim, which it announced in September.

The Super Bowl ad ended with the words “No. 2” followed by “Polestar 2” and an image of the company’s EV.

In a statement, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said about the ad, “The Super Bowl is an iconic event and I’m excited to bring Polestar’s message to such a wide audience. We are a young and ambitious brand.

“We believe in 'no compromises' for our design language, our sustainability efforts and the performance of our cars, and we wanted to share that philosophy with this ad. This is the perfect place to further raise awareness of our brand in the U.S. and beyond.”

Polestar said it delivered 29,000 vehicles in 2021 and plans to launch three new cars over the course of the next three years.

As of Monday's premarket hours, shares of Tesla were trading at $856.77, down $3.23, or 0.38%.