North Star 3
Courtesy: Polestar
Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar on Thursday revised its full-year production guidance, saying its forthcoming Polestar 3 SUV will be delayed until 2024 due to software issues.
The company also said it will cut about 10% of its workforce to cut costs. Shares fell sharply after the news, ending the day down more than 12%.
The news came as part of Polestar’s first quarter results report.
For the period ended March 31, Polestar’s net loss was $9 million, or less than one cent per share, due to approximately $213.4 million of positive valuation changes on some of Polestar’s obligations related to the merger with a special acquisition company last year. A year ago, the company’s net loss was $274.5 million, or 14 cents per share.
On an adjusted basis, excluding the accounting changes, the company lost $222.4 million in the period, or about 10 cents per share.
Revenue grew from $452.2 million a year earlier to $546 million.
Polestar had $884.3 million in cash left as of March 31, up from $973.9 million at the end of 2022.
Polestar lowered its full-year production forecast to between 60,000 and 70,000 vehicles in 2023, down from 80,000 in its earlier forecast, as the launch of the forthcoming Polestar 3 SUV will be delayed to 2024. The company originally planned to start with delivery of the model in China before the end of this year.
The Polestar 3 will be based on a new platform shared by Polestar and Volvo Cars. Polestar said it was “recently informed” that more time will be needed to finalize the software for that new platform. It now expects to ship the Polestar 3 in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s other upcoming new model, a smaller crossover SUV called Polestar 4, is still on track to launch in China in Q4 2023 and early 2024 elsewhere.
“We are taking the necessary steps to strengthen Polestar in the short term,” said CEO Thomas Ingenlath. “While production of the Polestar 3 will now start in the first quarter of 2024, the successful launch of the Polestar 4 last month means we are adding two strong offerings to the attractive electric SUV market in 2024. I am confident in that we will deliver on our growth ambitions and path to profitability.”
