WionDrive News Desk 
Given the rising geopolitical tension, Chinese-backed Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar Automotive is gearing up to shift its production of cars it plans to sell into Europe, to its U.S. plant from China.
When asked about how Polestar is preparing for a European probe into Chinese-made EVs possibly leading to increased tariffs, Thomas Ingenlath shared that the automaker is exploring the idea of exporting the Polestar 3 made in South Carolina to the European Union.
Polestar primarily builds its cars in the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Taizhou, and only started production in South Carolina this year. Now, it plans to build a facility in South Korea.
Primarily founded by Sweden’s Volvo Cars and China’s Geely, the majority stakes were sold off to Geely after Volvo decided to stop funding the venture. This comes at a time when Chinese EV makers are under scrutiny in Europe, and the U.S. due to China allegedly exporting over-capacity.
In October, the European Commission began investing if cheaper, Chinese-made EVs are unethically benefitting from state subsidies. However, China has called this investigation ‘protectionist’.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ingenlath said that the investigation has made calculating production costs “complex”. He added, “We actually are in limbo there because we of course don’t know where the investigation is going… the direction to go to a global footprint and manufacturing is something we have accelerated.”
According to analysts, the automaker’s shareholding shake-up demonstrates increasing difficulty for EV startups as sales growth decrease,s and financial loss deepens.
Data shows that Geely and a private investment firm owned by Geely founder Eric Li now own a combined 69% of Polestar, while Volvo Cars’ stake is 18% from an initial 49%. Ingenlath commented that he did not anticipate the change in shareholding capacity to have a direct impact on the day-to-day operations of the company.
Stats show that Polestar delivered 54,600 cars globally in 2024, and has set a goal to deliver around 165,000 cars in 2025. Despite a 40% drop in the first quarter deliveries, Polestar expects deliveries of its luxury Polestar 3 and 4 SUVs to accelerate this year. Ingenlath also mentioned that the automaker aspires for a sales breakdown of 40% in Europe, 30% in the United States and 30% in the Asia-Pacific region.
