Photo: Polestar
On May 31, I wrote how EV startups were running out of money in their attempts to go public. That was a strong sign that legacy automakers were catching up and offering everything these new companies were trying to anticipate. On June 24, Polestar merged with a Special-Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called Gores Guggenheim Inc. That made the Swedish company hit Nasdaq with the ticker PSNY, and now you can buy stock from it.
Apart from the market cap valuation that Polestar can get, the deal also gave it $1.05 billion: $800 million from Gores Guggenheim Inc. and $250 million from private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing. Among the new Polestar investors are the Volvo Car Group, “affiliates of Geely Chairman Eric Li,” and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Polestar said it would use this money to bring three more vehicles to market: the Polestar 3, 4, and 5. That is just an excuse for going public: each of these projects will cost Polestar the money the SPAC merger just gave it. In other words, it would need $3 billion to add all three to its lineup.
The truth is that Polestar planned to sell its shares in September 2021, when the stock market seemed to be in a very nice situation, and most companies were increasing their market caps just by being publicly traded. Until then, Polestar was just another brand in Geely’s enormous portfolio, including Lynk & Co, Volvo, Zeekr, Lotus, Smart, Proton, LEVC, Terrafugia, and Geely, obviously.
Although Polestar is the largest EV maker to ever go public by a SPAC deal, it is very similar to the startups that followed this path in the sense that it is yet to make any profits. Thomas Ingenlath expects it to be profitable by 2025. If the market likes the company’s next EVs as much as it praised the Polestar 2, that is a strong possibility.
Polestar said it would use this money to bring three more vehicles to market: the Polestar 3, 4, and 5. That is just an excuse for going public: each of these projects will cost Polestar the money the SPAC merger just gave it. In other words, it would need $3 billion to add all three to its lineup.
The truth is that Polestar planned to sell its shares in September 2021, when the stock market seemed to be in a very nice situation, and most companies were increasing their market caps just by being publicly traded. Until then, Polestar was just another brand in Geely’s enormous portfolio, including Lynk & Co, Volvo, Zeekr, Lotus, Smart, Proton, LEVC, Terrafugia, and Geely, obviously.
Although Polestar is the largest EV maker to ever go public by a SPAC deal, it is very similar to the startups that followed this path in the sense that it is yet to make any profits. Thomas Ingenlath expects it to be profitable by 2025. If the market likes the company’s next EVs as much as it praised the Polestar 2, that is a strong possibility.
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