00:00The Swedish electric vehicle company Polestar has seen year-on-year growth in the second quarter of nearly 40%.
00:07Sales have increased more than 50% for the first half of this year.
00:12Juliet Mann spoke to Polestar CEO Michael Loschler.
00:16Well, first of all, our sales is up 51% in the first six months of the year.
00:21That obviously is a very strong signal that we are doing the right things.
00:24I would say two important things are happening.
00:26First, the launch of our new cars, Polestar 3 and Polestar 4, is very well accepted in the market.
00:32And secondly, maybe even more important, we have added a lot of more retail locations and that is driving the sales.
00:38So we think this is a good endorsement and shows we are doing the right things.
00:43How much of this, though, is about the competition or the Elon factor, if you want?
00:48I wonder to what extent that all the beef between Tesla's Musk and President Trump is affecting the broader EV conversation.
01:00Look, first of all, automotive industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world, right?
01:05So as we are growing, we conquest a lot of customers from other brands.
01:09And to be honest, it's across the board and obviously we all welcome them.
01:13But it's not that there's one specific competitor which is most important for us.
01:17We conquest from many, many other brands.
01:20And that's good because it's a competitive industry and that's very good for consumers at the end of the day.
01:24I want to talk a little bit about the challenging geopolitical backdrop that you're working in.
01:33Those global trade tensions spell trouble for your sector in particular.
01:37Just how is Polestar affected by American import tariffs and what are you doing about it?
01:45Yeah, first of all, if we look at Polestar as a global company, we are in 28 different markets.
01:5176% of our sales are actually in Europe and only eight in the US.
01:55So Europe is of highest importance.
01:57But to your point on the US, which obviously is an important market for us, the way forward is to localize production.
02:05And we use actually a Volvo plant in South Carolina to produce a Polestar 3.
02:11We have announced just last week that we will localize the next Polestar here in Europe.
02:15So long story short, localization is the way forward in an environment where you have uncertainty about tariffs, supply chain challenges.
02:23So the more you can localize, the better it is for the company, but also for consumers.
02:28Is that a shift in your strategy that it was very Europe focused or do you think you've accelerated that part of the plan because of what's happening?
02:36No, I would say the localization strategy was already set up before I came, especially in the US.
02:43But now with a strong demand in Europe, we want to accelerate this.
02:47And yes, that was the driver also for the investment, the very important investment decision to produce the next Polestar here in Europe,
02:54because it makes things much, much easier from a supply chain perspective, from a freight perspective, but also from a tariff perspective.
03:01Right. Now, you are a Swedish brand owned by China's Geely, and I do want to talk about China's bulging electric car market.
03:10Is the EV bubble about to burst? And if it does, what impact might that have on Europe's car market?
03:20Well, first of all, as you say, we are a Swedish brand and we also perceived very much as a Swedish brand because we have this wonderful Scandinavian design.
03:28And obviously now we work through that. But I don't see all the commentary here in Europe about BEVs because the BEV market in Europe,
03:36which is our most important market, as we were discussing, is still growing.
03:40And I think we will also see further growth in other regions. So I am optimistic that there will be further growth.
03:46Is it linear in the way we were expecting a couple of years ago? No, but I do expect further growth on the BEV side of the business.
03:53So you're talking about further growth in battery and more precious electric vehicles. But can you have too much growth?
03:59I mean, there's a lot of chatter about oversupply, particularly in Asian markets.
04:04Yeah, well, obviously, the industry is competitive and it certainly takes some time that customers get used to it.
04:12But I'm fairly optimistic. And as we could increase sales by 51 percent, I feel we are doing the right things.
04:19We try to convince customers with product, but also with the whole ecosystem charging infrastructure.
04:23So I think we are doing the right things and are on the right path.
04:28What is it, though, Michael, that motorists actually want?
04:32We've still got those big questions about cost, about range. And the big one, where can I charge it?
04:38Who would you say is taking the charge, leading the charge when it comes to the infrastructure that's needed?
04:45I mean, this is actually a combined effort. I mean, we just recently issued a release where we highlighted and told customers have one million charging points where they have access to.
04:56I mean, obviously, that's a global number. But here in Scandinavia, for example, the charging infrastructure is excellent.
05:02In southern Europe, still more room to improvement.
05:05But I think the more people get into the EV, they see it's not that difficult and range anxiety is disappearing.
05:13So in the past, we were always saying those are the two big roadblocks.
05:16I see a lot of improvements on that side. And once customers drive EV cars, they love it.
