AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/30 Report--

In the early morning of August 28th EST, Swedish carmaker Polestar Polar Star announced that Thomas ThomasIngenlath has resigned as CEO and Michael Lohscheller will officially become CEO on October 1st, 2024. It is understood that since the establishment of Polar Star, Thomas Ingenlath has been serving as the CEO and successfully laid a solid foundation for the future development of the brand.

His successor, Michael Lohscheller, previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Volkswagen Group in the United States, and has been chief executive of Opel since 2017. Since then, Michael Lohscheller has entered a number of new power companies to hold important positions. Michael Lohscheller joined VinFast, the Vietnamese carmaker, as chief executive in July 2021, but resigned just five months later. Michael Lohscheller joined American electric truck startup Nikola as president in February 2022 and succeeded Mark Russell as CEO in January 2023. In August 2023, Michael Lohscheller resigned as CEO of Nikola and returned to Europe. With more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and experience in finance, marketing, sales, procurement and logistics, Michael Lohscheller may be able to lead the Polestar star to another tower.

Polestar Polestar is an electric vehicle brand co-founded by Volvo and Geely. At present, Polestar 1, Polestar 2, Polestar 3, Polestar 4, Polestar 5 and Polestar 6 have adopted SPA, CMA and SPA2 architecture respectively in 1-2-3, all of which are dominated by Volvo, while Polestar 4 uses SEA vast architecture, which is Geely Holdings's self-developed vehicle platform. The Polestar 4, which went on sale in November 2023 and sells for 29.99-399900 yuan, is a medium-and large-scale positioning pure electric SUV. It is also the first vehicle produced by Polestar Polar Star at Geely's Hangzhou Bay factory. On the power side, Polestar 4 offers options for single-motor and dual-motor versions.

As the world's largest automobile market and new energy vehicle market, the sales situation of Jixing in China is not optimistic. In the first half of 2024, Polestar Polar sold 1774 vehicles at the end of the Chinese market, which greatly demonstrates the challenges that Polar cars are facing in the Chinese market, including 905 Polestar 2 and 869 Polestar 4, according to FIFA data.

Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Star Technology, said that although we are facing the challenge of a slowdown in the pure electricity market and price pressure, we will continue to invest in new product development. There are already plans for Polar 7 and Polar 8. Shen Ziyu revealed that the two products, Ji Xing 7 and Ji Xing 8, will be the first to be launched in the Chinese market, and the Chinese team will lead the product definition. At present, they have discussed and studied with Geely Holdings Group, and strive to launch the Chinese market as quickly as possible in the next two years.

Qin Peiji, COO of Polaris Technology, also pointed out that although Polaris may not be well known in China, its strong brands, including Polestar 4, are expected to quickly narrow the gap with market leaders with strong genes and capabilities. Shen Ziyu said frankly that Jixing needs time to develop, and recognized the current situation and timing in the Chinese market, and made it clear that brand development would take time.

Of course, China is only one of the territories of Polestar stars in the global market. In fact, Polestar Star has sold electric cars in 27 countries, has set up 192 retail outlets and 1149 service points, and plans to enter seven new markets, including France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Thailand and Brazil, in 2025, and the global market will expand to 34 countries and regions. However, there is still a long way to go for Polaris to become the mainstream of the market, which is one of the important tasks of the new CEO.

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