George Gianarikas, senior research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., believes the world’s view of EV startups has changed.
“Part of it has to do with the shift in market sentiment — part of it with operational issues that companies have had trying to get things moving in a global supply chain crisis,” he said.
Meanwhile, competition from rapidly electrifying legacy automakers is heating up. The luxury brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz are launching a fleet of high-performance battery-powered models.
“Investors are now considering traditional OEMs that they may have previously written off,” said Gianarikas.
Still, Polestar has something that Rivian and Lucid lack — a multi-year sales record.
Polestar sold 29,000 sedans worldwide last year and generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenue. In April, the company signed a deal to supply rental giant Hertz with 65,000 battery-powered vehicles. The five-year contract represents more than $3 billion in potential revenue for Polestar.
“Calling Polestar a startup is kind of a misnomer,” said Sam Abuelsamid, senior analyst at Guidehouse Insights.
To scale, Polestar relies on the significant manufacturing, supply chain and retail infrastructure of its parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding, which owns multiple car brands including Volvo Cars.
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