Facing the risk of delisting, Polestar’s stock price recently dropped to $0.73, hitting a new all-time low. On May 21, Polestar’s stock price fell below $1 for the first time after the company announced a delay in the release of its 2023 annual report and fourth-quarter financial report. Polestar cited the need to correct accounting errors from 2021 and 2022 as the reason for the delayed financial report, stating that this will result in a decrease of less than 5% in net losses for 2021 and an increase of less than 5% in net losses for 2022. As a result, Polestar received a non-compliance notice from Nasdaq, requiring the company to submit a compliance plan within 60 days to regain compliance status within an additional 180 days if the plan is accepted. The failure to submit the annual report on time and the less than ideal performance directly impacted the market’s perception of Polestar’s future. Initially listed at $13 per share, the stock price has since dropped by about 95%, with a current market value of only $1.65 billion.
In 2023, Polestar delivered 54,600 cars globally. In the first quarter of this year, Polestar’s global deliveries dropped to 7,200 cars. Over the past three years, Polestar’s financial performance has not been ideal. From 2021 to the third quarter of 2023, its performance declined year by year, remaining in a loss-making state. In the first three quarters of 2023, its revenue was $18.44 billion, with a loss of $7.35 billion.
Currently, Polestar has 4 models. Polestar 1 and Polestar 3 target the high-end market, while the other two models are for the mass market. Polestar 4, mainly for the Chinese market, began deliveries in December last year. In 2023, Polestar plans to focus more on the Chinese market. In June of the same year, Polestar and Geely’s subsidiary, Starlink, established a joint venture company called Polestar Technology to take over Polestar’s business in China. They aim to enhance Polestar’s competitiveness in the Chinese market through Starlink’s digital and intelligent capabilities. Polestar Technology’s Chairman and CEO, Shen Ziyu, publicly stated that Polestar aims to have over 30% to 40% of its global sales come from the Chinese market in the future. Previously, Polestar did not put much effort into the Chinese market, with sales in China accounting for only single-digit percentages of its global sales. Currently, Polestar’s sales in China have not shown significant improvement. Third-party data shows that Polestar’s cumulative sales in China in the first four months of this year are less than 1000 units.