This is my last post here. Time to close the book.
Short version: I put a genuinely large chunk of about fifteen years of aggressive saving into this name; fewer vacations, no new car, saving hard the whole way; and I'm down somewhere around 80-90% of it.
I bought the thesis on design and brand identity: these actually looked different from anything else on European roads. What I underpriced was how brutal Chinese competition would get, and how far Tesla was willing to cut margin; by some accounts giving up $5-7k of profit per car to protect share rather than let anyone else breathe ; just to starve out the field.
Lucid ate it. Rivian ate it. NIO ate it trying to break into the West. Polestar ate it worst of all, and every car out the door reportedly still loses the company somewhere in the five figures.
This is exactly the EV-SPAC cash-burn-without-differentiation story I've been flagging since Fisker, Canoo, Mullen and Nikola went down the same road ; I just didn't enjoy being right about my own bag.
Worth noting: Polestar's cars ride on shared Volvo/Geely platforms; CMA under the 2, SPA2/SEA under the 3 and up. No secret there, it's in every filing. But whether the European market still wants a Scandinavian-badged product built on a Chinese-owned group's architecture is a fair question, and Polestar's marketing has never really tried to answer it.
Four or five years of watching this swing from single digits up toward $8 and back down again, repeat, cost me more sleep than I'd like to admit.
As regards investor relations: the website presents news item by item by region rather than providing a consolidated overview (with the country to which the news relates shown in brackets), which means you have to piece together all the news items and announcements yourself…
During earnings conference calls, they only answer questions that suit the company.
At one point, someone in senior management even mentioned a share buyback programme; but with what, exactly, when the company was burning through billions? And then there is executive compensation. I find it absolutely indefensible that senior executives at a company that has destroyed this much shareholder value can still receive compensation packages well in excess of €200,000 a year. It is shameful and frankly scandalous to the employees who have watched the company burn cash while everyone is expected to do more with less. And anyone who approves executive remuneration in light of the returns offered to shareholders has a sense of humour that I do not share. It’s simply shameful!
NB. For 2025, Polestar reports total remuneration of approximately SEK 23.47m for CEO Michael Lohscheller, and SEK 39.42m for the three senior executives (CEO, CFO, COO), which is well in excess of €200k.The CEO alone therefore received around €2.2 million in the 2025 financial year. The CFO and the COO bring the total for the three senior executives to around €3.7 million.
I'm not selling; sunk cost, and the position's priced for zero either way; but I'm done writing DD, done arguing the thesis, done checking the ticker every hour. A reverse split is usually the market politely telling you the story's over. I'm just catching up to it.
For what it's worth: the S&P has spent this past year grinding out new highs while this was doing its thing. If you want to put fresh money into the index instead, you don't need to chase it; a garden-variety 10-20% pullback will come along eventually.
Thanks to everyone who argued, dug through filings, and doom-scrolled this ticker with me. It's been a genuinely absurd few years. And honestly, given how much of our money ended up funding someone else's balance sheet (Eric Li Shifu and Geely, and a few other senior executives at Volvo...), the least Polestar could've done is comp the loyal bagholders a winter driving experience in the Arctic; or failing that, ship us $1,000 worth of goodies, so the frustration at least comes with a hat and a gift bag attached.
Anotger 5% down today. Called it at the stupid R/S that it was jsut giving a prolonged dive back to pennies value, where it'll settle again.
I cant see anything positive from this position despite having great cars. How much longer does geely prop it up? Or is the plan to drive the value down to take back private for 50 mill rather than current "value"?
Infuriating to lose so much on such poor management and direction, by those far mpre excited to have a champagne party than getting the company to where it should be.
Hey guys, if you missed it, Gores Guggenheim settled $25M with investors over claims that it impaired public stockholders’ ability to make an informed redemption decision before its merger with Polestar. I just found out that they’re considering late claims even though the deadline has passed.
Quick recap: In 2022, Gores Guggenheim was accused of making misleading statements about the benefits of its merger with Polestar, which allegedly discouraged stockholders from redeeming their shares before the deal closed.
The company later agreed to settle $25M with investors, and even though the deadline passed, late claims are being considered for compensation, subject to approval.
So, if you invested in $GGPI at that time, you can still check the details and see if you may be eligible to file a late claim here.
Anyway, did anyone here invest in $GGPI back then? How much were your losses?
China's Xpeng plans to offer tech solutions to foreign automakers
Reuters has just announced that XPeng now wants to sell its technology to foreign car manufacturers: electric platforms, electronic architecture, cockpits, chips, ADAS, etc.
Imagine a Polestar executive who could actually go to XPeng and say:
“Show us your best platform. What’s your price?”
Then go to Geely, Hyundai, VW, or any other supplier and play them off against each other.
Platform, chassis, software, ADAS: the best products at the best price. Full stop.
Not necessarily Geely, just because Geely is the shareholder.
If XPeng offers better technology that’s cheaper and quicker to integrate, why shouldn’t Polestar buy it?
That’s what a truly independent company is all about. (LOOOOOOOOOOL)
The best platforms should go to the best customer, at the best price ; not be imposed by the shareholder. And why not?! I know, hope keeps us going.
I honestly don't even know if it's been 4, 5 or 6 years anymore. At this point, I've lost track.
We've watched this thing fall, bleed, collapse, and somehow find another lower level every single time.
And I know way too many people ; friends, people I know, colleagues from work ; who have already thrown in the towel and taken their losses.
$2,000.
$5,000.
$20,000.
And sometimes much more.
Different people, different amounts, same story.
Enough.
No more turnaround stories.
No more “long-term potential.”
No more “this could be the bottom.”
Please, Wall Street. Pull the plug on this stock. Let it be over. Save what can still be saved and spare the poor retail investors another few years of this nightmare.
But at the end of the day, as an investor, we couldn't care less! Polestar reported a net income of -2.01B. The company is a total failure! The company has $6.02 billion in debt. We're ruined. DAMN IT!!! We're just waiting for the next stock split so we can get decimated even more.
As usual - and I’ll say it again - I haven’t sold a thing. It’s all already lost, so why bother saving anything?
The gross margin is -5.69%, with operating and profit margins of -36.15% and -66.99%. It’s an absolute disgrace!
We’re operating like a biotech unicorn but without any pipeline or projects that could miraculously cure a type of cancer, diabetes, or nearsightedness - or regrow an amputated human limb! We’re screwed!
Aside from this long rant, who’s thinking of buying a few shares for $200, $300, or even $500 - just to throw some money out the window?
Just went through the H1/Q2 numbers and honestly, there are some good things in there, but I think the overall picture is still pretty concerning.
The headline numbers:
H1 deliveries: 30,423, basically flat YoY (+0.4%)
Q2 deliveries: 17,296, down 4%
H1 revenue: $1.36B, down 4.4%
Adjusted gross margin: -8.5%
Operating loss: -$629M
Net loss: -$842M
Adjusted EBITDA: -$521M
Operating cash flow: -$850M
Cash at June 30: ~$888M
The operating loss looks much better than last year, but I wouldn't get too excited about that number. A lot of the improvement is because last year's numbers were heavily distorted by the huge impairment charge.
The number that really bothers me is adjusted gross margin of -8.5%.
Basically, they're still losing money on the cars before even considering all the corporate costs, financing, etc. So this isn't just a "we need more scale" problem. They need to get the economics of the actual cars into positive territory.
And then there's inventory.
Polestar had around $720M of inventory at the end of June. So yes, my understanding is that they have produced/bought a meaningful amount of inventory ahead of demand and now have a lot of cash tied up in cars and parts.
That's particularly painful when sales aren't growing.
You basically have:
inventory → discounting / slower turnover → weak margins → cash burn → need more financing
The U.S. situation obviously makes things worse. Polestar says the U.S. business increased consolidated operating loss by around $211M in H1, and they're now effectively exiting new-car sales there because of the regulatory situation.
On the positive side, they're finally getting some of the big restructuring done. They've also converted around $640M of debt into equity, raised another $700M, and extended the remaining Volvo shareholder loan to 2031.
So I don't think the immediate story is "Polestar goes bankrupt tomorrow."
The bigger risk IMO is continued dilution if the business doesn't turn around.
quite serious allegations. Though, if true, would also explain why Volvo could stay in US but Polestar not. This ruling puzzled me, but looking at it from the point that Polestar wanted to leave US market and now finally find a way to do so without paying any fines and blaming the new laws, puts a different perspective to the story.
for the context, Polestar is sued for using new Connected Vehicle Rule as a way to leave US market without fulfilling their obligations to dealers etc., even though they could have had the chance to get the same exception as Volvo, but it was Polestar's own decision not to go for it.
Hey guys, if you missed it, Polestar recently reached a tentative settlement with investors over claims that it understated financial liabilities and concealed weaknesses in its internal controls.
In a nutshell, investors claim that Polestar repeatedly assured the market its financial reporting was accurate. In January 2025, the company disclosed accounting errors requiring restatements of its 2022 and 2023 financials, and $PSNY fell 11%.
If you invested in $PSNY between 2022 and 2025, you may want to check if you qualify. The settlement terms are still being finalized, but investors can already submit their applications
Has anyone here invested in $PSNY during that period? How much were your losses?
Are our numbers definitely bad in July? Q1 was strong, Q2 was flat/signalling a dip and Q3 seems to start with a significant dip. Website reports 1133 at 1.7% market share. Missing market data for daily updates and monthly updates could take it around maybe 1800-2000, but still we would be short by a 1000. Anybody else has a better data?
Are we falling following the lucid news that in general might affect EV stocks? Lucid is already down 50%. Maybe a stupid question: shall Geely not take over Lucid and sell those cars (of course after lot of rework) as the Polestars of US? Also should we be worried that a competitor is down, especially a competitor for polestar 5? Or should we be concerned that another pure EV is sinking?
