Geely has become the number one big brother of Polestar, and behind Polestar's ride through the wind and waves is Geely's escort.
At the beginning of 2024, Apple announced that it would give up its car, Gaohe stopped production, and BYD took the lead in reducing prices, all of which intuitively felt the cruelty of the automotive industry. The automotive industry has been a global investment industry in the past few years, with a rush to inject capital into it, and all industries want to get a piece of the pie.
Then, after appreciating the involution of the electric vehicle field in China and even the world, the enthusiasm quickly cooled. The head brands began to enter the market to harvest, compressing the space. The brand that did not rush into the head began to look for support and cooperation, and entered the knockout round directly if it was not found.
When Volvo announced its Polestar shares, many people sweated for Polestar. After all, Polestar, which previously focused on overseas markets, has not opened up the situation in the Chinese market for a long time, but Geely quickly reassured Polestar.
On the penultimate day of February, Polestar made several big announcements, starting with the announcement of a successful 9The $500 million external financing will enable Polestar to make significant strides in product development and market expansion, as well as strengthen its future commercial footprint, drive business strategy and achieve its 2025 growth goals.
The three-year financing is a three-year financing offered by 12 leading national and international banks, including BNP Paribas, Natixis, Standard Chartered, BBVA, HSBC and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, to support Polestar's future plans. From an automotive market perspective, Polestar's external financing also reflects investors' optimism about the EV market and their recognition of the Polestar brand.
In 2024, when many new energy vehicle companies have been unable to hold on, Polestar's financing success is a shot in the arm for the automotive market and consumers.
Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar, said: "Obtaining financing from global banks is a testament to the confidence our partners have in Polestar's growth. I am confident that with Geely Holding's full support in the areas of financial financing, technological innovation and engineering R&D, Polestar will achieve its goal of breaking even in terms of cash flow by 2025." ”
As of December 31, 2023, Polestar had approximately 7$500 million. On the balance sheet, cash is usually included as part of the liquid assets, so you can intuitively feel that Polestar, which has money in its pocket, will make a big effort this year and next.
As a strategic partner and significant shareholder of Polestar, Li Donghui, CEO of Geely Holding Group and member of the board of directors of Polestar, said that Geely Holding will continue to provide comprehensive operational and financial support for the iconic high-performance car brand.
"We will hold a stake in Polestar for the long term and participate in Polestar's future financing plans in due course," he said. Geely Holding's technological strength and engineering R&D capabilities will be fully open to Polestar, accelerating Polestar's global growth goals. ”
While Geely becomes a significant new shareholder, Polestar maintains a deep partnership with Volvo Cars and will continue to provide customers with peace of mind and consistency in both commercial and aftermarket services.
Under the company's new shareholding structure, Geely Sweden will become Polestar's second largest shareholder, while Volvo Cars will continue to hold an 18% stake, which will lay a solid foundation for the brand's future growth.
This change also makes it clear that Polestar's ownership structure will now operate as a separate brand in the Geely ecosystem, along with other brands such as lotus, Volvo Cars, Proton, smart and others. Geely's direct stake in Polestar is a testament to Geely's ambitions for the Polestar brand.
Geely's support for sub-brands has always been to fully open up its technical strength and engineering R&D advantages, and give sufficient space for the brand to move towards independent development.
Going forward, Polestar will strengthen its commercial footprint and aim to break even with cash flow by 2025, with annual sales of more than 150,000 vehicles and a significant increase in gross margin.
In 2024, Polestar is poised to launch with three models on sale, with the current focus of course on the Polestar 2, of which the Polestar 4 is rapidly increasing worldwide, and the Polestar 3 has already been produced in China and has successfully completed its first trial production in South Carolina, USA. More personalized services will be provided to customers. In addition, the Polestar 5, a performance GT concept, will also be launched at an accelerated pace in 2024 – the first car Polestar has produced on its own bonded aluminium platform.
At this juncture, Geely and external financing are a spring rain for Polestar, and Polestar's own hard power and clear planning are the keys to victory.
There are three reasons why Polestar has not made a big breakthrough in China before, the first is that the brand does not give consumers enough security, the number of offline stores will directly affect the number of offline stores, and problems such as after-sales maintenance and test drive distance will affect consumers' desire to buy. Secondly, Polestar is drowned out in the noisy new energy market in terms of brand volume.
At the beginning of the year, Chen Siying, Senior Vice President of Meizu Group and President of the Automotive Business Division, officially joined Polestar Technology as Chief Operating Officer (COO), taking full responsibility for the company's marketing segment. After Chen Siying became the COO of Polestar, he integrated the original multiple departments into a marketing business system that includes three major segments: user growth, user development and user operation.
The veteran, who has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, will undoubtedly play a key role in giving Polestar a voice in the Chinese market.
Not only that, after Geely acquired Meizu last year, Geely officially established Meizu and established a joint venture with Polestar, and Polestar Motors received the blessing of intelligence. And because of the deep binding between Meizu's existing technology platform Flyme Auto and Polestar 4, there is also a high degree of interoperability between Meizu and Polestar.
At the press conference of Polestar 4 last year, Shen Ziyu also affirmed the importance of intelligent software and hardware tracks, so Polestar cars that integrate Meizu technology will definitely show better development prospects in the era of intelligent electrification.
Geely's comprehensive support also means that Polestar can be provided with more advanced technical support and R&D resources. At the same time, Geely has an extensive sales network and market channels in the Chinese market, which can provide Polestar with a wider range of market coverage and sales opportunities, thereby increasing Polestar's market share and brand influence. As a result, Polestar will gain stronger brand support and marketing, as well as improve Polestar's product development efficiency and product competitiveness, which is the path that many Geely brands have already walked and explored.
The automobile market in 2024 is destined to be more brutal than in 2023, but there is no doubt that the domestic mid-to-high-end pure electric vehicle market is facing a broad market space and prospects. As long as the product is launched this year as promised and the technology continues to be updated, Polestar will be able to gain the upper hand in terms of product development efficiency and competitiveness in the Chinese market.
In 2024, with confidence and support, Polestar will shine the eastern sky.