Polestar shares rise after reporting for the first time ever as a public company
In something of a change this earnings season, one electric car maker (other than Tesla) actually reported a profit for the quarter.
Polestar ( PSNY ), the Sweden-based company backed by Volvo and China’s Geely, reported its first gross profit as a public company since completing its SPAC merger earlier this year.
For the quarter, Polestar reported:
Although Polestar missed the top line, sales were up 105% for the quarter compared to last year, enough to post a $4 million gross profit for the quarter. The company also managed to cut the operating loss for the 3rd quarter by a third compared to last year.
Through the first nine months of the year, Polestar reported $54 million in gross profit on $1[ads1].48 billion in sales. During that time, Polestar delivered 30,424 cars globally, and the company said it was on track to reach its 50,000 car delivery target for the year. The company expects $2.4 billion in sales for the year, and predicts that performance will be “driven by strong sales in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Polestar also said it was sufficiently funded through 2023, citing its previous funding package worth $1.6 billion, provided by corporate parents Volvo and Geely.
Polestar says the product pipeline is scheduled to reveal new product launches such as the Polestar 4 SUV in 2023, the Polestar 5 grand touring sedan in 2024, and the Polestar 6 roadster in 2026. Polestar has previously announced that the Polestar 3 SUV will arrive in the fourth quarter of next year, and will eventually be built at Volvo’s factory in South Carolina in mid-2024.
It wasn’t all good news, however, as Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said supply chain issues and parts shortages would hamper production.
“Will the situation improve next year? No, we expect that this will again be something that keeps us busy, Ingenlath said in a media briefing. Earlier this year, Polestar cut its production forecast to 50,000 from 65,000 due to covid-related shutdowns in China. Polestar builds its cars at the factory in Chengdu, China.
Nevertheless, the Polestar share is rising today on the basis of today’s results. With the support of its corporate parents, Polestar has been able to leverage the manufacturing and technology capabilities of Volvo and Geely to see its “asset-light” business model succeed when other pure EV rivals such as Rivian ( RIVN ), Lucid ( LCID ), and to and with Nio (NIO) struggling for profitability.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him further Twitter and on Instagram.
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