[KeyMajor]

CEO Thomas Ingenlath told reporters on a conference call that their mid and long-term plan is to be publicly listed with an IPO. But their immediate focus is on their cars.

If/when Polestar does become a publicly traded company, who's buying stocks?

Polestar CEO eyes eventual IPO but focus now is electric sedan

Deliveries of the brand's first high-volume EV, the Polestar 2, have begun in Europe and will start in North America next month, officials said.

www.autonews.com

Polestar, the premium electric vehicle maker, owned by China's Geely and Volvo Cars, would like to eventually be publicly listed, but the immediate focus is on successfully launching the new Polestar 2 electric sedan, the startup's CEO said Tuesday.

"The mid- and long-term perspective indeed are to be ... open for the stock market and an IPO," CEO Thomas Ingenlath told reporters on a conference call. "This is indeed one track that is still on and has not changed" since Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in January 2019 that Polestar could eventually be listed publicly, Ingenlath added.

Volvo Cars is owned by Geely.

Polestar's top executive said the focus now is on a successful launch of Polestar 2, dismissing a point made that other EV makers like Nikola Corp. and Fisker Inc. have gone public or announced plans to do so without having launched a vehicle.

"It's not about the short-term thinking. We have a long-term ambition," Ingenlath said. "Let's see where we are in a year."

He said that polestar will sell the Polestar 2 in China, Europe and the United States, and the company is targeting annual sales of more than 50,000 within two to three years.

The car will compete with Tesla Inc's Model 3 sedan but will be targeted at owners of the gasoline-powered luxury sedans from Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen Group's Audi brand, Ingenlath said.

Polestar, launched in 2017, already has the low-volume halo Polestar 1 hybrid performance car that sells for about $150,000. Officials said that deliveries of the company's first high-volume car, the Polestar 2, have begun in Europe and will start in North America next month.

Both cars are built in China, and there are no immediate plans to build a Polestar car in the United States, as the company needs to make sales in that market first, Ingenlath said.

The Polestar 2 will be sold through standalone retail locations called "Polestar spaces" that are set up in high-traffic pedestrian areas, officials said. Those showrooms will be owned and operated by Volvo dealers, which will also serve as the car service locations.

 

[tng]

This idea makes so much sense. Hyundai is going to similarly spin off the Ioniq brand. Everyone is watching Tesla's stratospheric stock rise with awe.

 

[GDank]

I'd defiantly consider depending on the price.

 

[ProfessorCook]

Chances are, if you're here, you're seeing the value in the Polestar 2 over Tesla and others. I think that's a good indication of where to put your money, despite the considerable risk whenever you purchase a particular stock. I was an early adopter of Compaq computers, back in the early 80's. A friend heard me raving about it and bought some stock. He did very, very well with it. (He could've at least bought me dinner, eh?)

 

[tng]

Chances are, if you're here, you're seeing the value in the Polestar 2 over Tesla and others. I think that's a good indication of where to put your money, despite the considerable risk whenever you purchase a particular stock. I was an early adopter of Compaq computers, back in the early 80's. A friend heard me raving about it and bought some stock. He did very, very well with it. (He could've at least bought me dinner, eh?)

Good point. I always prefer to buy shares in industries that I understand and/or believe in future growth, and you're right, one reason I'm here is because I'm optimistic for the future of the Polestar brand. I think the product is fantastic and it's only a matter of time until more people realize the same. People doubted whether the Tesla Model 3 would sell, but once people experienced the product, the car sold itself.

The same will happen with the Polestar 2 if Polestar improves the distribution model. Right now, I think Polestar's attempt to innovate with an unconventional distribution model--this limited number of Polestar Spaces arrangement--is going to hurt the brand, at least in the short term. If I was a shareholder I'd be pushing for either a more conventional sales model or some other solution to bring cars closer to more buyers.

I will seriously consider buying some Polestar shares. My problem is I always sell too early, I kick myself for not holding Amazon!

 

[polerad]

Like @tng I’m sold on the product but a bit less sold on the sales/distribution/service model in the US. I hope/expect they’ll get through these as they’re basically growing pains. And it all comes down to a negotiation with the existing Volvo dealers. It seems they’ve worked out some sort of reasonable relationship with dealer networks in NYC, LA, and the Bay Area. So it’s just a matter of finding like minded dealers in the other major metro areas. Hopefully that also includes a ranger type program from those dealers to allow more complete geographic coverage across the US.

or, you know, the US actually stays basically irrelevant when it comes to EVs and it’s actually all about Europe and China.... and Polestar seems to be doing just fine there!

 

[ProfessorCook]

Like @tng I’m sold on the product but a bit less sold on the sales/distribution/service model in the US. I hope/expect they’ll get through these as they’re basically growing pains. And it all comes down to a negotiation with the existing Volvo dealers. It seems they’ve worked out some sort of reasonable relationship with dealer networks in NYC, LA, and the Bay Area. So it’s just a matter of finding like minded dealers in the other major metro areas. Hopefully that also includes a ranger type program from those dealers to allow more complete geographic coverage across the US.

or, you know, the US actually stays basically irrelevant when it comes to EVs and it’s actually all about Europe and China.... and Polestar seems to be doing just fine there!

I think the problem is with U.S. laws. My inadequate and assuredly incomplete understanding is that years ago, the powerful car lobbyists got laws passed to protect the dealership model and that those laws are currently in place that prevent Volvo dealerships from selling or servicing cars in the U.S. The complicated service arrangements are the result and the only way for Polestar to pull this off in the U.S.

 

[JRRF]

Spinning off a new company is really all they can do in the US to avoid the wrath of Volvo dealers already in place. It's also a strategy to get another 200K units under the federal rebate program. I could see GM doing something similar with EVs since they are over the 200K cap.

 

[tng]

It's also a strategy to get another 200K units under the federal rebate program. I could see GM doing something similar with EVs since they are over the 200K cap.

This is a very interesting take. If this is the case, I think Tesla should spin off the Cybertruck into Cybertruck & Co. and spin off the Semi truck division into a Tesla Commercial company. 400k extra units of rebates.

 

[JRRF]

This is a very interesting take. If this is the case, I think Tesla should spin off the Cybertruck into Cybertruck & Co. and spin off the Semi truck division into a Tesla Commercial company. 400k extra units of rebates.

It wouldn't surprise me at all. Tesla just did a 5 - 1 stock split, so they are well positioned to move a lot of that extra stock into a new venture.

 

[Darius]

I found this comment that I thought brought up some good points not covered here:

Will they go public? Pretty sure China kind of requires their long standing companies to retain control. So even if they do it would only be 49% of the shares at best. So they most likely can’t go public like that even if they wanted to.

That said, they have far more chances to succeed than Nikola or Fisker. And their approach of a separate brand will help in some regards as it creates less conflict and boggles them down with less headaches. I wouldn’t call the polestar a model 3 competitor since its 1 size class smaller, but its still a decent enough offering in its own.

I mean despite Nikola and Fisker and others like Faraway future trying to replicate Tesla. They are following a completely different strategy than Tesla did. If anything, Tesla has followed a similar strategy as Ford did when it started up. And so far, the strategies these companies trying to mimic Tesla but aren’t really are following strategies that have generally failed.

 

[JRRF]

You can go public and only sell 49% of your stock on the public market. And it's still a separate corporate entity, and so they are entitled to the full 200K cars under rebate.