Recently, according to Reuters, Volvo Cars plans to sell 62% of its 48% stake in Polestar cars7% of the shares are distributed to its shareholders, of which the value of the shares is about SEK 9.5 billion (about 66.).200 million RMB). Back on February 1, Volvo Cars had said it would stop funding Polestar. The announcement also sent Volvo's share price up 30%, and if the proposed share distribution is completed by a vote at the 2024 annual general meeting, Volvo's stake in Polestar will also be reduced from the current 48% to 18%.
In recent years, Volvo's deep involvement in Polestar has also been criticized by analysts, who believe that it has slowed down Volvo's own development pace to a certain extent, and has also consumed Volvo Cars' resources. Commenting on this, Jim Rowan, President and CEO of Volvo Cars, said: "We have an important operational and financial relationship with Polestar, so it is logical that we maintain Volvo's influence by holding a smaller stake of 18% in Polestar."
It is reported that Volvo will carry out the equity distribution agreement through a 2:1 share split, followed by an automatic share redemption process, and subsequently, Volvo Cars confirmed that it will no longer provide financial support for Polestar. In the future, Geely will take over from Volvo to continue to provide financial and operational support to Polestar, and expand synergies in basic technology, ** chain and other aspects.
According to Volvo Cars' plan, in 2025, Volvo will fully electrify, of which 50% of pure electric models will be sold, and the rest will be hybrid models, and by 2030, Volvo will become a 100% pure electric luxury car company. In order to achieve the goal of full electrification in one year, 2024 has also become a key year for Volvo's electrification transformation.
On February 21, 2024, Luo Wenxiang once again came to China to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the fourth phase of Volvo Cars' Asia-Pacific headquarters, and in the future, a battery center and training center in China will be built to support the subsequent electrification transformation of Volvo. During the critical period of the transition to electrification, for Volvo, Polestar's mediocre and continuous loss in sales seemed to have become a "burden that cannot be thrown away". ”
For the whole of 2023, Polestar sold 5460,000 units, far lower than the previous sales target of 80,000 and 60,000 units, and sales in the fourth quarter of the same year were only 1,280 units, a decrease of 39% compared with the overall sales in the same quarter of 2022. In China, Polestar has yet to release specific sales figures. On the financial front, in the first three quarters of 2023, Polestar's loss has reached 73.5 billion US dollars (about 52 yuan.)900 million). Volvo and Geely had to rely on Volvo and Geely to supply Polestar with "fresh blood".
After the completion of the equity distribution, Polestar will also officially change ownership from Volvo to Geely, but Volvo still has some influence on it. Next, Volvo will concentrate its existing resources and work the road of electrification transformation, and we will continue to pay attention to how Geely can use its resources to help Polestar continue to grow.