By Tom Murphy
Count Polestar among the battery-electric startups that are living on the edge, struggling to stay afloat through a series of recent debt-to-equity conversions and new equity investments. Polestar was historically aligned with Volvo Cars but now operates as an EV brand under Geely Holding Group of China, which holds a controlling stake in Polestar while Volvo Cars retains 19.9%.
On April 17 we will find out how Polestar fared financially in 2025. The question isn't whether Polestar lost money but how much. Through the first three quarters of 2024, Polestar reported a net loss of $323 million.
Based on larger established automakers reporting 2025 losses in the billions of dollars – even while producing and selling internal-combustion models, too, unlike Polestar – the results could be bleak for Polestar.
True, Polestar EVs are growing in popularity in Europe, but grand aspirations for the US market have not panned out and China is awash in EVs that people just aren't buying, from any brand. Difficulties in China and the US can be tied to the discontinuation of federal tax credits or tax exemptions.
Q1 Sales Of 13,126 EVs – Globally
Did Polestar have a decent first quarter in terms of vehicle sales, to perhaps lessen the impact when 2025 financial results are announced in the morning? Well, retail sales were up 7% compared to Q1 2025 to 13,126 EVs. That sounds like a decent tally if we're just talking about US sales, but this number represents sales globally. Yikes.
For context, Polestar sold the same number in Q2 2024, when momentum was noted in the US and much of Europe. There are generous incentives on Polestar EVs currently in US inventory. For calendar year 2025, Polestar's retail sales globally totaled 60,119 units, up 34% compared to 2024.
Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller noted the latest sales results were the brand's highest ever for a first quarter. He called out a strong performance in "key markets such as Australia, Germany, Sweden, South Korea and the UK."
Read the full article on CarBuzz
This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
