Polestar, Volvo’s sister company in Geely’s growing portfolio of automotive marques, will lay off about 15% of its workforce globally, which amounts to roughly 450 people losing their jobs, the manufacturer said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The Geely-owned carmaker builds the all-electric Polestar 2 liftback, Polestar 3 SUV, and Polestar 4 coupe-like SUV that has no rear window. A low-slung four-door flagship sedan dubbed Polestar 5 is also in the works.
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After missing its sales target for 2023, Swedish-based EV maker Polestar said it plans to cut about 450 jobs worldwide, or approximately 15% of its workforce, citing “challenging market conditions.”
“As part of this business plan, we need to adjust the size of our business and operations,” a Polestar spokesperson said. “This involves reducing external spend and, regrettably, also our number of employees.”
With a portfolio that until recently only had one model–the Polestar 2–Volvo’s sister company has been struggling to get sales and profit take off. At the beginning of the year, the automaker, which plans to start U.S. production this quarter, missed its delivery targets for 2023. In Q4 of last year, Polestar sold about 12,800 EVs worldwide, a 39% decrease in volume compared to the same period in 2022.
“Polestar continues to protect its exclusive brand position in what remains a challenging market, resulting in fewer deliveries in the fourth quarter, and now expects a gross profit margin for the full year of around break-even,” the marque said regarding its disappointing results.
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That said, the company’s full-year sales numbers saw a slight increase of 6%, but it was not enough to reach the updated guidance of 60,000-70,000 sales in 2023, as the year ended with roughly 54,600 sales. Initially, Polestar hoped to sell 80,000 EVs last year.
Despite smaller numbers, the company’s head honcho remained optimistic about what’s to come. “[The] Polestar 4 has been very well received in China and ramping up production was an important milestone for us,” said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO at the beginning of January. “Sales of our SUV coupé will start in Europe and Australia in the coming weeks. With the first deliveries of [the] Polestar 3 expected in the summer, our shift from being a one to three-car company positions us for a transformative and exciting 2024,” he added.
