Polestar Announces Polestar 7 Suv Amid Flagging Sales And Regulatory Hurdles

Polestar whitethorn beryllium facing a imaginable prohibition successful nan US, but nan Sweden-by-way-of-China shaper isn’t going to fto that extremity it from releasing caller products. The institution provided a business update connected Thursday, during which it announced a caller model, nan Polestar 7 compact SUV, that will beryllium produced successful Europe.

Little was revealed astir nan Polestar 7 — we didn’t moreover get a look astatine a prototype — but nan institution said it will beryllium a “very progressive SUV” pinch “a beardown USP,” aliases unsocial trading point. It’s unclear erstwhile nan conveyance will spell into accumulation aliases moreover wherever successful Europe it will beryllium built. (Sweden seems for illustration a apt bet.)

“We will participate nan compact SUV segment, by nan way the biggest and fastest expanding conception successful nan world, and we will evidently make judge it comes with each nan Polestar DNA,” nan company’s caller CEO, Michael Lohscheller, said.

The update, which took nan style of a professionally produced sit-down mobility and reply pinch Lohscheller, didn’t touch connected Polestar’s regulatory problem successful nan US. The Biden guidance precocious finalized a prohibition connected connected conveyance package from China, a move that Polestar has said would “effectively prohibit” it from trading EVs successful nan US.

In fact, nan US wasn’t mentioned astatine each during nan 27-minute video — perchance a reflection of nan beardown headwinds EVs are facing nether nan incoming Trump administration. Instead, nan institution said it expects to motorboat soon successful France, which is 1 of nan fastest-growing markets for EVs.

This represents a important displacement successful nan company’s position from nan past less years. Polestar was laser-focused connected nan US marketplace pinch nan Polestar 3, a three-row SUV manufactured astatine its mill successful South Carolina successful bid to suffice for generous incentives nether nan Biden administration. EV income were looking beardown erstwhile nan Polestar 3 was announced, but now income personification slowed acknowledgment to precocious prices, charging challenges, and politics. Many of those incentives put successful spot by President Joe Biden are apt to beryllium eliminated nether President-elect Donald Trump.

Polestar too reported its 3rd 4th nett coming (the institution is lagging down different companies successful reporting its earnings), including a $323 cardinal nett loss. It sold 12,548 cars, which was down 8 percent compared to its Q3 income successful 2023.

The institution too said it nary longer expects akin gross successful 2024 arsenic it earned successful 2023, nor a affirmative gross profit separator for nan 4th quarter. Instead, Polestar is expecting “a mid-teens percent diminution successful gross and a antagonistic gross separator astir nan aforesaid level arsenic afloat twelvemonth 2023, arsenic nan 4th 4th merchandise cognition was negatively impacted by little than expected Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 sales.”

But amid these challenges, Lohscheller said he was convinced that Polestar was still connected nan correct track. He predicted “positive” adjusted nett for 2025 and free complaint flow, successful which Polestar would beryllium generating overmuch money from its business operations than it is losing successful 2027.

“Really, 2024 is simply a transitional twelvemonth for Polestar,” said Lohscheller, who antecedently served arsenic CEO of nan Stellantis-owned Opel. “But I consciousness we are well positioned now going into 2025 pinch nan correct cars, pinch nan correct distribution, and evidently a much much amended attraction connected important costs simplification and expanding efficiency.”