Cologne So far, the Swedish-Chinese brand Polestar has only sold one model – the Polestar 2. That is about to change. The brand, which was founded five years ago, should have more models and thus gain in importance worldwide, promises Polestar boss Thomas Ingenlath in an interview with the Handelsblatt. He announces “product fireworks” for the coming years. The brand from Gothenburg is to become a globally relevant manufacturer of electric cars – and thus compete not only against the German premium brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes, but also against Tesla.
Polestar was founded in 2017 as a sporty Volvo offshoot for premium electric cars. Almost 50 percent of the Polestar shares are therefore still with Volvo. Another major Polestar owner is the Chinese Geely Group, Volvo’s parent company. After last year’s successful IPO, a smaller portion of Polestar’s shares are also traded on the stock exchange.
Polestar boss Ingenlath promises three more models for this year and next. Accordingly, two SUVs and a real sports car will be added in the near future. This should enable global expansion.
Polestar is particularly European
In 2022, Polestar sold around 51,500 vehicles around the world, most of them in Europe. In the important Chinese car market, Polestar hardly plays a role with less than 2,000 vehicles sold. For the year 2023, Ingenlath plans to sell around 80,000 vehicles worldwide. Among them will be the first examples of the Polestar 3, the first SUV from the Volvo offshoot. In Germany, sales of the second Polestar model are scheduled to begin in the second half of the year.
In the coming year, the Polestar 4 will be another SUV and the Polestar 5, a real sports car. The brand wants to significantly increase its annual production and sales figures by 2025. Ingenlath then calculates sales of around 290,000 vehicles per year.
With a share of around 40 percent, Europe should remain the most important sales market for the Swedish brand in the future. North America and China would then each contribute 30 percent. Ingenlath wants to score points in North America and China in particular with the two planned SUVs. The Polestar 2, the only product so far, is a classic European vehicle as a sedan and is therefore less in demand in the other two markets.
At the latest with the 290,000 cars produced annually, Ingenlath wants to permanently reach the profit zone, “but maybe a little earlier with fewer cars”. In 2025, Polestar will reach a production volume that will allow the brand to surpass the initial investment and associated losses. The Polestar 2 is the current basis. “The brand will continue to evolve with the new models,” said the Polestar CEO.
Polestar convinces on the stock exchange
Polestar is also certified on the stock exchange and in investor circles that it will become a profitable company in just a few years. “Ideally, the higher production figures will ensure that Polestar burns less money this year,” emphasizes Daniel Röska, automotive analyst at the American investment company Bernstein. He expects a capital increase at the Geely subsidiary, which will successfully attract new investors and thus expect higher liquidity and more free float among the shareholders.
The Polestar 2 is currently still being produced in a car plant in China. In the longer term, however, the vehicles are to be manufactured worldwide. With the Polestar 3, vehicle production also starts in the USA.
Ingenlath wants to use the synergies, especially in association with Volvo. According to the CEO, Polestar’s production figures are currently still too small for its own plants. Polestar uses the same platforms (“kits”) as Volvo. Therefore, parallel production in one plant is comparatively easy from a technical point of view.
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In Europe, too, there will later be their own vehicle production. “Possibly with the successor to the Polestar 2,” Ingenlath suggested. His company will then very likely use Volvo’s existing production capacities for this as well.
Ingenlath sees no problem in the fact that Volvo and Polestar compete equally in the premium segment. There are clear differences between the two brands, which are also recognizable to customers. This also applies if Volvo, like Polestar, has completely converted its product range to electric drive.
Polestar differentiates itself from Volvo
“Polestar is more exclusive and expressive, especially in terms of design,” he said. The cars of the new Swedish electric brand are more tailored to “the actual driving experience” and definitely offer “more dynamics”. A Volvo is also often used as a family car that has to do many things on a daily basis. Polestar wants to charge more than 100,000 euros for some of its models in the future. “That doesn’t fit into Volvo’s product portfolio,” says Ingenlath.
Volvo announced a speed limit for all of its vehicles some time ago – the limit should be 180 kilometers per hour. At Polestar, Thomas Ingenlath, who comes from Krefeld on the Lower Rhine, cannot imagine such a curtailment. German customers in particular could therefore rather buy a Polestar than a Volvo. Within Europe, there are only motorway sections without speed limits in Germany.
Compared to the competition, the Polestar 2 charges a little slower.
(Photo: Trygve Finkelsen)
When it comes to the charging times of its electric cars, Polestar lags behind that of other premium providers. A Polestar 2 takes about 35 minutes to charge from zero to 80 percent. Not much will change at first, not even with the new models. Polestar does not use the more expensive 800-volt charging technology that is used in the Porsche Taycan, for example. The Porsche charges about twice as fast as a result. Polestar, on the other hand, wants to stick with the cheaper 400-volt technology.
Polestar CEO Ingenlath does not see this as a fundamental problem for his brand. “Even with today’s loading times, we are competitive,” he emphasized. A high-performance charging infrastructure is much more important for the customer. The search for a charging station must be quick and easy. The same applies to the payment process, which is still too complicated in some places today.
Polestar wants to convince with sustainability
Ingenlath sees a competitive advantage for his young brand in the “Polestar 0” project. By 2030, the Geely subsidiary wants to develop a truly climate-neutral car, the production of which does not produce a single gram of carbon dioxide. Ingenlath also wants to include all suppliers. Significant steps on the way to the climate-neutral car are the reduction of energy consumption in production and the increased use of recycled materials.
“This is a flagship project for us,” said Ingenlath. In contrast to other companies, this is not a pseudo-initiative at Polestar, the carbon dioxide emissions are actually reduced. The Polestar CEO is convinced that in the foreseeable future, customers will also make their decision when buying a car dependent on the use of CO2. “In two to three years this will become the dominant issue,” he emphasized, “we cannot continue as before.”
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