Polestar’s operating loss shrinks as cost cuts kick in

By Marie Mannes and Akash Sriram

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s Polestar (NASDAQ:) reported a smaller second-quarter operating loss than a year earlier on Thursday, a day after the electric vehicle (EV) maker replaced its CEO amid funding challenges and flagging sales.

The company’s U.S. shares rose 9% in pre-market trading, as the quarterly operating loss narrowed to $242.3 million from a revised $273.6 million a year earlier, helped by cost actions.

The luxury carmaker has struggled like other EV startups to become profitable, hindered by delays to model launches, missed delivery goals, high costs, and weaker than expected demand.

Polestar said on Wednesday it would replace Thomas Ingenlath, who had been CEO since it was founded in 2017, with Michael Lohscheller, a former boss of Opel and EV startups.

Polestar – like rivals – needs cash as it ramps up business and aims to become profitable and breakeven on cashflow in 2025.

The company said on Thursday it had secured an extra $300 million in funding via a one-year term loan facility from a bank in August. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of June were $669 million, versus $784 million at the end of March.

Polestar suffered a blow earlier in the year when one of its co-founders, Volvo (OTC:) Cars, said it would stop further funding. Its majority shareholder and also co-founder, China’s Geely, has said it intends to continue to support the group.

Quarterly revenue fell to $574.9 million from a revised $693.3 million a year earlier, but the company stuck to its forecast for a stronger second half of the year.

Polestar said its results had been hit by higher discounts and lower volumes, as EV makers struggle with sluggish demand and a price war ignited by Tesla (NASDAQ:) last year.

Punitive import tariffs imposed by the European Union, the United States and Canada on China-made EVs have added to pressure.

Polestar has until this month only made cars in China. However, it has now started production of its Polestar 3 SUV in the United States.

The company started delivering Polestar 3s to customers earlier this year, after a delay from its original mid-2023 plan, but told Reuters this week it was pausing deliveries globally until mid-September to fix software issues.