Polestar cut its fourth-quarter operating loss as revenue grew 67 percent to $985 million on strong sales of its Tesla Model 3 rival and lower costs.
Polestar’s fourth-quarter operating loss of $204.7 million was down from $337.3 million a year ago, the automaker said in a statement on Thursday.
The Swedish automaker’s gross profit during the quarter was $61.9 million compared with a $200,000 loss during the same period last year.
For the full year, Polestar’s revenue rose 84 percent to $2.46 billion while its operating loss increased by 29 percent to $1.29 billion. A big contributor to that was a one-time share-based listing charge of $372.3 million the automaker faced in the second quarter of last year.
The automaker’s full year gross profit increased to $119.4 million last year from $900,000 in 2021.
Polestar Chief Financial Officer Johan Malmqvist told Automotive News Europe the company expects its 2023 gross profit to be in line with last year, adding that the automaker expects to increase global sales 60 percent to 80,000 units.
Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath is confident that target can be reached because the company achieved a key “proof point” in the last quarter of 2022.
“We can now do 21,000 cars in the quarter. That will be our the new normal,” he told ANE.
At that production level, Polestar’s 2023 volume rise to 84,000 compared with the 51,491 cars delivered in 2022 and the brand’s 28,677 unit volume in 2021.
Those numbers are below what the automaker predicted it would achieve in materials prepared ahead of going public. The 2022 goal was 65,000 and the 2023 target was 124,000.
Polestar listed on the Nasdaq exchange last June via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Despite the adjustments, Ingenlath said Polestar is sticking with the long-term targets of its business plan, which include global sales of 290,000 by 2025 and becoming profitable by 2024.
Polestar is rolling out updated versions of its only current model, giving the Polestar 2 more power, increased range and a new drive configuration.
The company said prices of the revised fastback will rise, which is the opposite of what Tesla has been doing.
“We will not engage in a price war … we are aiming to become a very premium sportscar company,” Ingenlath told Reuters in a separate interview. “It’s very clear that this is a completely different aim from where Tesla is going, with 20 million cars per year.”
The Polestar 2 also adopts the design language premiered by its SUV sibling, the Polestar 3, which Ingenlath said will start to arrive at dealers this summer. He said the Polestar 3 initially will be build in China before U.S. production ramps up at Volvo’s factory in South Carolina. Volvo is a founder and major shareholder of Polestar.
Ingenlath also told Reuters that the supply chain issues that have hampered global auto production should ease in 2023.
When asked by ANE what Polestar’s biggest challenge will be in 2023 Ingenlath said it would be extending the brand’s focus from one car to three, with the third being the Polestar 4 coupe-styled SUV that is due to debut before year-end.
He said making sure that all Polestar owners are “happy customers” who receive a premium-level experience that matches the likes of rivals such as Porsche “takes a lot of energy and focus.”
“Everybody on our management team, including me, is making sure that customers who have had problems are being taken care of,” he said. “You can do all the marketing in the world, but if your neighbor who owns a Polestar 2 talks badly about it that damages you a lot.”