EV maker Polestar taps industry veteran as CEO to shake up faltering business

STOCKHOLM: Polestar will replace long-serving CEO Thomas Ingenlath with a former boss of Opel and EV startups as the company fights to shake up its business after years of delayed model launches, missed delivery targets and further separation from Volvo cars.

Its new CEO, Michael Lohscheller has previously served as CEO of Stellantis-owned carmaker Opel, Vietnamese EV maker VinFast and electric truckmaker Nikola and will start in the position on Oct 1, the company said in a statement.

He is taking the reins at a challenging time for the EV maker as it embarks on a further major cost-cutting programme in an attempt to become profitable and cashflow breakeven in 2025.

The wider sector problems have also hit the company hard, with a slowdown in demand for electric cars and pressure to cut prices amid a price war ignited by Tesla last year.

Punitive import tariffs imposed by the European Union, the United States and Canada on China-made EVs have added further pressure on costs as the company works on reducing its reliance on production in China.

The new CEO's significant experience as a chief executive of automotive companies differs from Ingenlath's design background, who had served as Volvo cars' senior vice-president of design before he became Polestar's CEO in 2017.

The leadership change marks a further shift away from Volvo cars, which alongside China's Geely, was one of the co-founders and major financial backers of Polestar until this year.

The company elected a new chair in June, replacing Hakan Samuelsson who was Volvo's CEO for nearly 10 years. It also replaced its head of design last week, who also had his background in Volvo.

Two of Polestar's cars, its models 2 and 3 are produced in Volvo cars factories, but its model 4 is made in a factory run by Geely and not based on Volvo's platform, which is also likely to apply to future models.

While Volvo cars has distanced itself from Polestar, reducing its stake to 18% from 48%, Geely, now the majority shareholder, has said that it remained committed to Polestar and intends to further assist with funding.

On Wednesday, a Geely spokesperson said that while CEO appointments were the board's remit, as one of the leading shareholders the Chinese group "supports the Polestar board in their strategy to realise the Polestar business plan".

Polestar's new chairperson Winfried Vahland said he believed Lohscheller was the right choice for the next phase of the carmaker's development.

"Polestar has experienced an exceptional start-up phase and with a broader model line-up, Michael Lohscheller is the ideal leader to guide Polestar into its next chapter," Vahland said.