volvo

Polestar doubles Q3 revenue, narrows losses • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 11, 2022Posted in EV, Polestar, Polestar 3, Transportation, volvoNo Comments

Polestar said it’s still on track to deliver 50,000 cars worldwide this year, even as other electric vehicle makers falter amid higher costs, supply chain crunches and production challenges. The Volvo spinoff, which went public in a SPAC deal in June, delivered more than 30,424 globally for the first nine months of the year, including 9,249 in the third quarter. CEO Thomas Ingenlath said he expects the fourth quarter to be the automaker’s strongest, with higher vehicle prices offsetting rising material costs. The company is one of a handful of startup brands that managed to mass produce an EV on a global scale. It benefits from shared resources with Volvo and its parent company, Geely, as well as a $3 billion agreement to sell 65,000 EVs to Hertz over the next five years. “Unlike most of our peers, our global targets are a reality, not an aspiration,” Ingenlath said Friday on a call with analysts. He said Polestar, which forecasts full-year revenue of $2.4 billion, would have exceeded its production goal if not for a wave of pandemic-related lockdowns in Shanghai that stymied global automakers in the spring. The company reported a third-quarter operating loss of $196.4 million, down from $292.9 million for the year-ago period. Revenue more than doubled to $435.4 million, from $212.9 million. The arrival of the Polestar 3 SUV, a new entrant in a profitable, fast-growing segment, could be a game-changer. The five-passenger crossover is designed to compete with a forthcoming crop of battery-electric luxury SUVs from Mercedes-Benz, Maserati and the like. Priced from $83,900, the 489-horsepower SUV will achieve an estimated 300-mile range and share some equipment and features with Volvo’s upcoming EX90 battery-electric SUV, including bidirectional charging, which allows the car’s battery to feed power back to the grid when not in use. The company will begin building the Polestar 3 at Volvo Cars’ plant in Chengdu, China, next summer and its Ridgeville, South Carolina, facility in mid-2024. The SUV is expected to arrive in showrooms in the U.S., Europe and China late next year, followed by the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Polestar plans to sway SUV customers to the new brand with a cutting-edge technology palette, which includes hardware from lidar supplier Luminar and software from Zenseact, Volvo’s division for advanced driver assistance systems. Analysts note that certain new Volvo safety features may debut in Polestar models first. Polestar plans to continue launching new models at a steady clip, starting with the 2024 arrival of the Polestar 4 SUV coupe. The Polestar 5 4-door GT and Polestar 6, an 884-horsepower hard-top convertible, are slated to follow.

Volvo unveils flagship SUV with 370-mile range • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in EV, suv, Transportation, volvoNo Comments

Volvo unveiled its flagship electric vehicle Wednesday, a seven-passenger SUV that can travel 370 miles on a fully charged battery. The debut of the Volvo EX90 is a “huge step forward” in the automaker’s quest to become a fully electric brand by 2030, CEO Jim Rowan said during a livestreamed launch event. Slated to arrive early 2024, the SUV marks the brand’s “new era” of software-defined vehicles, sporting technology and safety features expected to trickle down to the rest of the lineup. The EX90 embodies Volvo’s key marketing message — that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car — as it aims for EVs to comprise half of the 1.2 million vehicles the company is targeting in mid-decade global sales. The standard system features 16 ultrasonic sensors, eight cameras, five radar systems, and lidar fitted to the roofline, helping the car see up to 820 feet in complete darkness, according to Volvo. “All of these work together to form an invisible shield of safety,” said Rowan, who called the EX90 “the safest car Volvo has ever produced.” He said the system is designed with AI capabilities to become more tailored to the driver’s behavior over time. As the latest in the industry’s crop of “software-defined vehicles,” the SUV relies upon core compute technology. The guts are created with partners, including Google, Apple, Nvidia, Luminar and Qualcomm. The EX90’s 370-mile range puts it ahead of the majority of new battery-electric SUVs on the market, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model X. It also features bidirectional charging to use the car’s battery as an extra energy supply source to power home appliances and feed energy back to the grid. The automaker said Wednesday it plans to unroll a Volvo app, with details to come, and expand its subscription-based ownership and Care by Volvo maintenance programs to more cities and countries.

Polestar steers towards the mass market with its first electric SUV • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in EV, Geely, Polestar, Polestar 3, Transportation, volvoNo Comments

EV maker Polestar has unveiled the Polestar 3, its first SUV designed to help propel the startup to bona fide mass market automaker. Priced from $83,900, the 489-horsepower Polestar 3 will achieve an estimated 300-mile range, according to Polestar – a competitive set of figures designed to compete with a forthcoming crop of battery-electric luxury SUVs from Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, and the like. Polestar’s five-passenger SUV is also available with a Performance Pack that raises output to 517 horsepower. The Swedish electric performance car company is still small by any measurement – delivering just 6,638 cars in the U.S. for the first nine months of the year, compared with Tesla’s 390,814. But so far the company seems to be one of the few EV SPACs still going strong, in part due to support from its largest shareholders, Volvo and Geely. Image Credits: Polestar Polestar went public in a SPAC deal with Gores Guggenheim in June. It has managed to avoid the pitfalls facing most other EV manufacturers that have opted to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company rather than completing an initial public offering – namely cash crunches, investor lawsuits, federal investigations and bankruptcies. It’s also one of the few EV SPACs with actual production vehicles on the road and more coming. Polestar has said it’s on track to deliver 50,000 cars worldwide this year, and plans to scale up to 290,000 cars annually by 2025 — about 10 times the automaker’s 2021 sales. Those are impressive targets given that the brand currently sells just one model, the 270-mile range Polestar 2 battery-electric sedan. Its debut model, 600-horsepower Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid, was discontinued in December. The arrival of the Polestar 3 SUV, a new entrant in a profitable, fast-growing segment, could be a game-changer, as it was for Maserati, Porsche, Lamborghini and other staunch sedan brands that took the leap into utility vehicles. Polestar 3 details Image Credits: Polestar The company will begin building the Polestar 3 at Volvo Cars’ plant in Chengdu, China, next summer and Ridgeville, South Carolina facility in mid-2024. The SUV is expected to arrive in showrooms in the U.S., Europe and China late next year, followed by the Middle East and Asia Pacific. All told, the automaker hopes to have showrooms in 30 countries by the end of 2023. Polestar plans to continue launching new models at a steady clip, starting with the 2024 arrival of the Polestar 4 SUV coupe. The Polestar 5 4-door GT and Polestar 6, an 884-horsepower hard-top convertible, are slated to follow. Polestar plans to sway SUV customers to the new brand with a cutting-edge technology palette, which includes hardware from lidar supplier Luminar and software from Zenseact, Volvo’s division for advanced driver assistance systems. Analysts note that certain new Volvo safety features may debut in Polestar models first. The Polestar 3 will share some equipment and features with Volvo’s upcoming EX90 battery-electric SUV, including bidirectional charging, which allows the car’s battery to feed power back to the grid when not in use. Polestar said the SUV will use centralized computing from Nvidia as its “AI brain,” processing data from its five radar modules, five external cameras and twelve external ultrasonic sensors to power its advanced safety features. An optional Pilot Pack features a lidar system lets the Polestar 3 scan its surroundings in greater detail, allowing for over-the-air updates as Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving becomes legal on public roads.