Automotive News Europe - May 2019 - 10

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

Q&A

QA Fit for a fight

Volvo's Polestar brand intensifies Tesla challenge with 'powerful little beast'

olestar has signaled its intention to
challenge Tesla's early leadership
in the fledgling niche for full-electric
premium midsize models that cost between 40,000 and 60,000 euros. The
402-hp Polestar 2 (right), which CEO
Thomas Ingenlath calls a "powerful little beast," will go into production next
year. Ingenlath explained why China
and Norway will be the Polestar 2's top
markets and outlined the role he will
play in the Volvo subsidiary's bid to attract new investors during an interview
with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc.
What has been the response to the
Polestar 2's debut?
Launching an electric car generates a
lot of attention just because it's such
a hot topic. For me, it was really nice
to see that people understood it was a
big achievement for our brand to bring
out a premium electric car priced between 40,000 and 60,000 euros. That
is not easy to do. At the same time, we
maintained our ambition to debut a welldesigned car that provokes emotion and
fascination not just because it's electric
but because it's an amazingly powerful
little beast.
You expect 40 percent of Polestar 2
sales to come from China. Why will it
be your No. 1 market?
There is a very clear commitment to shift
to electromobility there. Just look at how
fast China switched to e-scooters. It
happened within a couple of years. Also,
China is one big market with one set of
rules. In Europe, we will start with six
countries and each one has its own legal entities, sales structures and so on,
making it much more cumbersome.
What will be the Polestar 2's secondlargest market?
It will be Norway because the country
has a very clear commitment toward
electromobility.
How has Polestar brand evolved over
the last year with the Polestar 1 halo
car and Polestar 2?

www.autonewseurope.com

Meet the boss
❚ NAME: Thomas Ingenlath
❚ TITLE: Polestar CEO
❚ AGE: 55
❚ MAIN CHALLENGE: Luring

customers away from the Tesla
Model 3 with the Polestar 2.

The Polestar 1 brought us a dedicated
group of people who were really interested in electromobility and becoming a
part of the brand from its beginning. But
the product they were really waiting for
was the Polestar 2. The Polestar 1 is the
pinnacle of our brand while the Polestar
2 is the foundation. Because the price
tag is very different [155,000 euros for
the Polestar 1], you attract a different
kind of audience.
Have you already sold out the entire
1,500-unit three-year run of the Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid?
No, but you will have to wait a bit longer
to get one because the first year of production is gone.
Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson
said that Polestar is looking for investors. How much time will you spend
on this? Is this money needed for the
Polestar 4, 5 and 6?
It's not for a specific car project. It is for
the midterm and long-term ambitions

of the brand. It is not the goal of our
owners to keep the brand exclusive to
themselves. They want to open it up. Of
course, I will be involved in promoting
this and speaking with potential investors, but it's not taking a lot of my time
the moment. That is a future project.
It has been about two years since you
were promoted from Volvo brand design boss to chief executive at Polestar. What are the best and worst
parts of being a CEO?
What I love about it is the energy that
comes when a product, after all the hard
work, becomes real. That amazing and
rewarding feeling, which I got as a car
designer and now as CEO of Polestar, is
why you spend all those hours. The worst
thing is definitely that I have to spend
most of my time sitting rather than standing. Clearly, sitting in meetings eight to
10 hours a day is not what I desire most.
I love to work in the design studio and the
ANE
workshop. That is what I miss.

MAY 2019

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - May 2019

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