Polestar boss reassures potential buyers

If you’re considering buying a Polestar but worried about the EV start-up’s upheavals, its new Australian boss says recent changes in the company’s top management and the way it is financially backed should offer reassurance.

Scott Maynard, who took over as managing director of Polestar Australia in April, is one of many recent changes made within the troubled brand both here and at a global level.

The overhaul comes as the model range finally starts to expand from the Polestar 2 fastback it has almost solely relied on for sales.

After multiple delays caused by software issues, the Polestar 3 large SUV is now arriving in showrooms globally with the smaller Polestar 4 close behind.

The Polestar 5 four-door coupe has been confirmed for 2025 and the Polestar 6 sports car for 2026.

The brand’s founding leader, Thomas Ingenlath, recently revealed in an interview the Polestar 2 would be replaced by the Polestar 7 in 2027.

But Ingenlath, a former designer, has now been replaced as CEO by Michael Lohscheller, an auto executive with a more orthodox CV running Opel – briefly VinFast and Nikola – as well as being the chief financial officer at Volkswagen North America.

Lohscheller is taking over a business that is experiencing substantial financial difficulties.

Polestar has failed to hit sales targets for a variety of reasons, including the global slowdown in EV sales, and has been dropping hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter with share value having dipped up to 90 per cent within two years of its break-away from Volvo.

Volvo has more recently declined to invest more funding into Polestar, prompting Geely – the parent of both companies – to step in with financial backing.

Polestar is also currently expanding not only its model line-up but its production footprint out of China, with plants coming online in the USA and South Korea.

It’s also moving away from exclusively-owned retail spaces to partnerships with established dealers.

Maynard, who has more than 30 years of local auto industry experience working for the likes of Audi, JLR and BYD, was obviously aware there were plenty of challenges when he took over Polestar’s local outpost.

One of his first moves has been to revamp and settle pricing.

The local boss said the messages from Lohscheller, who officially started October 1, had been encouraging.

“It’s been really interesting and reassuring to hear some of Michael Lohscheller’s early addresses to management,” he told carsales. “He has been quite clear in saying that he finds the business in good hands.

“In seven years Thomas has set the business up beautifully, but with the complexities of three models, 30 markets and multiple different production centres, the logical next step is to move to this style of management.

“But he has been quite clear we remain EV only, we remain committed to the sustainability message and the design-led brand that we have been.

“So not fundamental change at the moment. But accountability is something that is going to be at the forefront, to make sure we are doing everything right, we have the numbers right and the sales model is the right one.”

Maynard added all this should act as reassurance for potential Polestar buyers, who he agreed would in many cases be doing their due diligence on the brand.

“The brand’s now backed by Geely and they have made a couple of public statements now that while they allowed Polestar to pick its new incoming CEO … they 100 per cent back it and they 100 per cent back the brand and will continue to financially support it,” he said.

“It’s been really healthy for Polestar to move from investment by Volvo to investment by Geely because that enables another degree of separation, independence and individuality which I think is going to suit the brand really, really well.

“We derive an enormous amount of confidence from the backing of the group, while the continued support of Volvo in terms of R&D and so on is still available to us.”

Maynard backed Volvo’s recent global decision to slow its transition to EV, thereby aiding the separation of identity between the two companies.

Volvo Cars Australia has since announced it is pausing its transition to a purely EV line-up. It had been scheduled for 2026.

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