Polestar Obtains $1.6B in Financial Support From Volvo and Geely’s Chairman
Polestar Automotive, a Swedish electric vehicle brand, announced on November 3 that it has received further commitments for financial and liquidity support from its two major shareholders.
Volvo Cars is providing a principal amount of $800 million through an 18-month term loan, with an equity conversion option for Volvo Cars. This amount is on par with the direct and indirect financial and liquidity support that Polestar’s other major shareholder, PSD Investment, is providing. PSD Investment is a private investment company under Eric Li, the chairman of Volvo Cars and its parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
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Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said, “We welcome the continued support from our major shareholders at a time when the capital markets are volatile and unpredictable. With sufficient funds through 2023, we remain laser focused on business execution. We have around 70,000 cars on the road today, and are on track to reach our goal of delivering 50,000 cars to customers in 2022. We are making strong progress on our ambivalent plans to launch three more cars by 2026.”
Polestar was acquired by Volvo Cars, which is itself owned by Geely, in July 2015. In October 2019, Geely and Volvo Cars jointly funded the establishment of Polestar Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., making Polestar an independent electric vehicle brand. In June of this year, Polestar was successfully listed on the Nasdaq.
Polestar currently has three models, namely the Polestar 1, a two-door plug-in hybrid sports car, the Polestar 2, a battery electric five-door lift-back, and the Polestar 3, an electric performance SUV. It previously launched the Polestar 6 LA Concept Edition, which is limited to 500 units worldwide, in September of this year.
In 2020, the global cumulative sales volume of Polestar exceeded 10,000 vehicles, and in 2021, the global sales volume increased to 29,000 vehicles, an increase of more than 190% year-on-year. In the first half of this year, its delivery volume in the global market more than doubled year-on-year.
With the gradual enrichment of products, Polestar is also accelerating its layout of channels. In the first half of 2022, the firm launched sales businesses in 26 markets in regions such as Europe, North America, China and the Asia Pacific. It is estimated that by the end of 2023, Polestar will expand its global business to at least 30 markets with nearly 160 retail outlets.
At present, Polestar’s automobile products are manufactured in China and sold to the global market. In the future, Polestar plans to also set up a manufacturing base in the the US.
