This year, Volvo announced that it will no longer continue to fund Polestar, the electric vehicle brand it jointly created with Geely. This announcement raised many eyebrows, but Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said it was always going to happen. He told the UK's CAR, "The plan was always for Volvo to let off ownership. And it will still be the partner with whom we need synergies with manufacturing, the service network and so on. That was the original idea. But it was a little bit more of a surprise when it finally happened."
Ingenlath says it was evident that the money Polestar required shouldn't come from its owners: "We had to find financing that wasn't simply going to Volvo and Geely saying, 'Mummy, Daddy, we need more money.' That was always the point, and we talked about the financing and equity required to cover this $1.3 billion." Towards the end of last year, Polestar found itself in a positive position and raised $950 million, which was announced to the public in late February. But by then, news of Volvo no longer funding Polestar had made headlines.
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