GOTHENBURG, Sweden: Electric vehicle maker Polestar said it would not engage in a price war, despite falling demand forcing some of its rivals to curb output, stressing it will maintain its 2023 production plan.
It also announced a lower-than-expected quarterly loss.
In 2023, Tesla sparked a price war, even as ongoing supply chain issues put further pressure on electric car startups, which aim to capitalize on the shift to EVs.
In an interview with Reuters, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said: “We’re not going to engage in a price war…we’re aiming to be a very premium sports car company. It’s very clear that this is a very different goal to where Tesla is going, with 20 million cars per year.”
Rival US electric car startups Rivian and Lucid both forecast their 2023 output well below analysts’ estimates, but Polestar confirmed its commitment to its 2023 production plan, released in January, of 80,000 cars, up from about 51,000 it delivered in 2022.
Supply chain issues have hampered global car production in 2023, and 2022 has left Polestar with a strong order book, Ingenlath said, adding, “This year will be a little more normal.”
The company reported a gross profit of $61.9 million, compared to a loss of $0.2 million in the same quarter in 2021, and added that it expects its 2023 gross profit to be in line with the $119.4 million that it reported for 2022.
Source: sn.dk