Polestar stock jumps as earnings and production forecasts cheer investors

Polestar (PSNY), the Swedish EV maker backed by Volvo and Geely, is on the rise.

The company has spent strong fourth quarter results, a smaller loss than expected and revenue up 84% from a year ago. And to a surprise for a pure-play EV maker, the company surpassed its annual production forecast of 50,000 and now forecasts its 2023 production target will reach 80,000 units, a 60% increase.

“Well we had a very, very strong production run in the second half of ’22 which then left it up to our countries to deliver those cars until the last day in ’22 to really get all the cars produced out,” said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

“And you can imagine that we had a very, very joyful Christmas celebration, knowing that we are delivering and making that difference by being the EV startup that achieves and delivers on what we promised,” he added.

In fact, Polestar delivers on what it promises, although for a company backed by Volvo and Geely, calling the company a “startup” is a bit interesting. Polestar uses a joint Volvo/Geely plant in Zhejiang Province, China to build the Polestar 2, the main vehicle it offers for sale.

Ingenlath is confident in the company’s production target of 80,000, although he acknowledges “logistics and supply chain”. [are] not as “optimal” as in previous years. Polestar has it easier as they only build one vehicle, but by the end of the year the company will have three products on sale, rounding out the portfolio.

“2023 is still a year where we operate as a one-model company,” said Ingenlath, noting that 2023 is a transitional year with the Polestar 3 SUV soon to appear. “By the end of the year, we will have a product portfolio that includes a range of three products, not only Polestar 3, but also the Polestar 4, which is coming and launching this year.”

The Polestar 3 SUV, based on the same architecture as Volvo’s EX90 EV SUV, and the Polestar 4 coupe SUV will round out Polestar’s product offering by the end of 2023. The Polestar 5 sedan is slated to launch in 2024, along with the sleek Polestar Roadster in 2026.

The story goes on

“It’s not about bringing these cars to the market and mass production,” says Ingenlath. “Our asset-lite model that we’re using, where we’re actually working with the factories and the manufacturing teams that are established at Volvo and Geely, gives us that kind of assurance, yes, we’re not going to end up in manufacturing hell.”

Was that a dig at Tesla CEO Elon Musk experiencing “production hell” while booting up the Model 3?

Possibly. Although the Swedish upstart is on the rise, it still has a long way to go before it can become the biggest player in space.

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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. you can follow him Twitter and further Instagram.

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