Author |Chai Xuchen.
Polestar, a high-end sub-brand of Volvo that was born with a "golden spoon", was abandoned by Volvo.
On 1 February, Volvo announced that it would no longer provide funds to Polestar, concentrating its financial resources on its own needs, and considering transferring its stake in Polestar to other shareholders.
The other shareholder is Geely. On the same day, Geely Holding announced its support for Volvo's decision. If the shareholding adjustment is completed, Geely Sweden Holdings, a subsidiary of the company, will become a significant new shareholder of Polestar, and Geely Holding will continue to provide operational and financial support for the Polestar brand.
At this point, Polestar's brand backed by Geely and Volvo has become a major shareholder Geely alone.
On this news, Volvo's stock price soared by more than 30% at one point. According to industry analysis, Polestar, which has been in a state of loss, has consumed too many resources from Volvo.
Last year, Polestar delivered 5The annual sales target of 460,000 new vehicles was not met at 60,000 units. In China, the largest new energy market, the presence is even lower. According to the data of the insurance company, from 2021 to 2023, Polestar's deliveries in China will be units.
Sales were sluggish, Polestar's finances were inevitably under pressure, and the two shareholders of Volvo and Geely had to continue to transfuse blood for Polestar, but they were still in a loss-making state. In the first three quarters of last year, Polestar suffered an operating loss of 7$3.5 billion with a profit margin of only 11%。
So, even if Polestar promises to be profitable in 2025 if it receives a capital injection of 14 billion kroner (9.5 billion yuan). But Volvo has clearly run out of patience and is unable to take this "big pie".
Investors also voted with their feet, and less than two years after its listing, Polestar fell from a $10 share offering price to less than $2, and its market value has shrunk by more than 80%.
Polestar, which has always regarded itself as a high-end performance brand, has finally been awakened by the cold reality and now has to tighten its belt, announcing at the end of January that it will lay off about 450 people worldwide.
Back in 2017, Polestar transformed from Volvo's royal high-performance tuning division into Polestar, an independent high-performance electric brand joint venture between Geely and Volvo.
At that time, the electric vehicle market had not yet been opened, Tesla had not yet built a factory in China, Wei Xiaoli was still busy preparing products, and domestic electric vehicles were still in the stage of "oil to electricity", and the high-end electric vehicle market was a blue ocean that no one had set foot in.
Shouldering the heavy responsibility of impacting the luxury electric vehicle market, Polestar has been favored by Geely and Volvo, and under the ** of Li Shufu, it will land on the NASDAQ in 2022, and its market value once exceeded that of traditional car companies such as Nissan and Renault.
Backed by two big trees, Polestar, which is at the peak of its debut, ushered in "high and low".
Between 2017 and 2023, Polestar released four Polestar models, but none of them managed to make a name for themselves in the market.
On the one hand, the price of the product has fluctuated, from a million-level coupe to a mass-market model of 10,000 yuan, and the positioning has been repeatedly adjusted, which not only failed to make Polestar gain a hit, but also blurred the brand tone and market perception.
At the same time, due to product planning issues, the first two Polestar products took 1-2 years to be delivered, and the Polestar 3, which was supposed to be delivered last year, was postponed to the first quarter of this year due to research and development factors.
In addition, the frequent upheaval at the top of the China region has caused Polestar's strategic focus to repeatedly jump between the European, American and Chinese markets. The strategies of "sticking to the tonality and not reducing prices" and "establishing a brand first and then going to volume" proposed by the senior management are even more incompatible with the real automobile market.
Years of chaos have cost Polestar its brand, word of mouth, and sales. Obviously, the cold Polestar has not adapted to the current crazy environment at all, and has missed the opportunity of high-end electric vehicles in China.
After Volvo proposed to "break up" and Geely "took over", no one can give an answer to whether Polestar, which is trapped in a niche market, can be saved. However, what is certain is that if Polestar wants to survive, it must learn to lower its profile and return to reality, and use Geely as a backer to seek opportunities in the Chinese market.
In June last year, Polestar announced that it would establish a joint venture with Meizu "Polestar Technology" to take over Polestar's business in the Chinese market. Among them, Meizu is dominated by 51% of the shares, and will be responsible for arranging the company's future financing.
For Polestar, the cooperation with Meizu also means that the strategic focus will be readjusted back to the Chinese market, and it is expected to be included in Geely's territory, and it is also expected to receive all-round resource support such as technology, channels, and finance.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November last year, Shen Ziyu, chairman of Polestar Technology, set the tone to take advantage of intelligent software to promote Polestar to enter the Chinese tram track. Polestar also defines 2024 as the "Year of Breakthrough in China" for the brand.
According to the plan, Polestar's goal in the Chinese market in 2024 is to fight for the top three sales of global luxury electric vehicle brands. The first model is the Polestar4, which was developed for China and is built on the vast platform, which also uses Meizu's intelligent cabin system.
In China, the number of channels will also be expanded from the current 55 to 120 by the end of the year; In addition, Geely also appointed Chen Siying, who "has experience in high-end brand operation" and has been at the helm of Lynk & Co, as the COO of Polestar Technology.
Polestar has Polestar waiting to be delivered this year, and Polestar models on the way to development ready to be launched next year, all of which will require a lot of money. In addition, Polestar's shortcomings in product strategy, market layout, and capacity allocation must be made up one by one, and at the same time, it must also face the challenge of new domestic forces, and even Geely's "same door" Zeekr.
It can be said that after "accommodating" Polestar, Li Shufu revised the "script" for it, giving this Swedish track gene car company hope for "rebirth".
However, under the territory of Geely, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Lotus are all "sons" of high-end sequences, and if you want to be reborn in Nirvana, Polestar's own efforts are still the key. The dream of climbing to the top of luxury cars still has a long way to go.
Wall Street news, welcome **app to see more.