After several rounds of replacement of the head, Pole Star China once again decided to change the coach.
On August 10, Polestar announced that Feng Dan will take over nathan Forshaw as president of Polestar China from August 15.
The reason for choosing Feng Dan is obviously related to his past achievements. Before joining PoleStar, Feng Dan worked for SAIC-GM for 8 years, serving as the national sales director and head of the business department of the Cadillac brand, participating in and witnessing the brand's annual sales growth to 220,000 vehicles.
Regarding joining PoleStar, Feng Dan said: "This is an exciting brand with a unique brand positioning and clear product planning. With the release of the Polestar 3 and subsequent luxury pure electric models, we will continue to provide Chinese users with a luxurious product and service experience. I look forward to leading the PoleStar China team to deepen the Chinese market and further contribute to polestar's global success." ”
According to the plan previously released by Polestar, three new pure electric products will be released in the next three years, of which the first high-performance pure electric SUV, Polestar 3, will be launched in The world in October this year. Combined with Feng Dan's entry declaration, it can be seen that Feng Dan's joining is to allow follow-up models such as PoleStar 3 to exert force in the Chinese market.
Polar star backed by two large mountains
Once again "archaeology" Polestar Polestar, which was founded in 1996, was wholly owned by Volvo in 2015 with its modification record, becoming a high-performance sub-brand of Volvo.
In October 2017, Volvo announced that Polestar officially operates as an independent brand, focusing on high-end electric vehicles. Later, based on geely's relationship with Volvo, the PoleStar brand became an electric vehicle brand jointly controlled by Volvo Cars and Geely Holdings.
Up to now, Polar star has launched two models, namely Pole Star 1 and Pole Star 2. Among them, the first model Polar Star 1, positioning high-performance electric drive hybrid GT coupe, the official guidance price is as high as 1.45 million yuan, and has been discontinued; The second model, the Polestar 2, will be launched in 2020 and will be priced at 257,800-338,000 yuan, directly benchmarking the Tesla Model 3.
The support of geely and Volvo, two big mountains, helped Polestar successfully go public in the United States and successfully go to sea.
On June 28 this year, PoleStar Motors successfully rang the bell on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in New York through SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition) and was officially listed, with a listing valuation of about US$20 billion.
According to the data released by Polestar after landing on the NASDAQ, in the first half of 2022, Polestar delivered 21,200 vehicles in the global market, compared with 9,510 units in the same period last year, an increase of 125% year-on-year, close to the sales volume of last year' full year; The order volume reached 50,000 units, an increase of more than 350% year-on-year.
For the Chinese market, PoleStar did not release relevant data. However, the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in the first half of 2022, Polar star export sales of 12,437 vehicles. Based on the first half of 21,200 vehicles delivered and the export volume in the Chinese market, in the first half of 2022, Polarstar sold about 8,000 vehicles in the Chinese market.
This data, compared with the domestic sales of 2048 vehicles in 2021 of Polar star, the growth rate is already quite fast. However, compared with other domestic new energy vehicle brands, it is not remarkable.
Polar Star China, where is the hot hand?
Although Polar Star is a Geely electric vehicle brand, it has always been highly controversial in the domestic market. The reason is that it has not paid enough attention to the Chinese market.
For example, Polarstar is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, with R&D centers in Sweden and the United Kingdom, manufacturing only in China, and two factories in Chongqing and Taizhou.
Not only that, Polestar is also accelerating the expansion of the global market. At the beginning of this year, Polestar announced its development plans for the next few years, indicating that it will focus on overseas expansion, planning to expand to Spain, Portugal and Ireland, as well as the Middle East markets such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Israel. It is expected that by the end of 2023, Polestar will expand its global operations to at least 30 markets.
For comparison, in the Chinese market, Polaris Motors has 15 sales outlets in China, located in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Chongqing, Chengdu and Changsha, most of which are first-tier cities. Although PolarStar plans to expand its sales channels in the Chinese market to 20 this year, the speed of laying is still not comparable to the number of hundreds of new car-making forces.
In an announcement on May 19 this year, PoleStar motor also reduced the global sales task of 65,000 vehicles in 2022 to 50,000 units on the grounds that "factory shutdowns due to the epidemic in China" were also reduced.
The industry also believes that PoleStar's "aiming overseas" layout and lack of attention to Local Chinese consumers are the main reasons for its gradual marginalization in the Chinese market.
Therefore, Feng Dan's appointment may be for the turning point of Polestar in the Chinese market. After all, in the eyes of most car companies and investors, the Chinese market is an indispensable sales treasure.
Feng Dan's burden
In addition to the product and external layout, the internal management of PoleStar is also a point that has been criticized.
In four years, the head of Polar star China was replaced three times. Among them, Shen Feng, the first CEO of China, turned to Weilai after taking office for more than a month. The second was Wu Zhenhao, former Vice President of Products asia pacific at Volvo Car Group, who reigned for two years. After only a year on the job, in March 2021, The head of Polestar's global strategy and development department and Neson Fochau, an executive of the Ervo Group, took charge of Polestar's China and Asia Pacific businesses.
The newly appointed Feng Dan has large-scale sales experience in luxury cars in China, and even has the title of "promotion killer" of luxury brands. This is crucial for Polestar, which is eager to boost sales.
However, it is undeniable that four years of high-level turmoil and frequent coach changes mean that Polestar's Chinese business has not been satisfactory for a long time.
At the end of June, J.D.Power released the 2022 automotive quality rankings, showing that Polestar was at the bottom of the overall brand ranking, with pp100 as high as 328. Expose its quality issues.
The reason is that Polar Star 2 has previously carried out 3 vehicle recalls. In October and November 2020, the domestic Polar Star 2 launched two recalls in succession. On March 23, 2021, PoleStar Automobile once again recalled 2031 domestic Polestar 2 premiere versions. The reason for the recall is that the core components of the vehicle involving the power battery energy control module have failed, and in extreme cases, they may lose power during driving, and there is a safety hazard.
Coupled with the sluggish layout in China, the weak market volume, and the current situation of too few models, Feng Dan's pressure is extremely great and there are many challenges. According to Polarstar's plan, the compound growth rate of its new energy vehicle sales will be higher than 29% from 2020 to 2025, and the annual sales volume will increase to about 290,000 units by the end of 2025. Although the specific goals of the Chinese market have not been revealed, the time is already pressing.