The third quarter of 2022 was Polestar's best one so far financially, with the electric performance car brand posting more than double revenue and a 33-percent lower operating loss than a year ago.
The Swedish automaker reported an operating loss of $196.4 million in Q3, down from $292.9 million a year ago, while revenue rose to $435.4 million from $212.9 million on strong Polestar 2 deliveries. However, the company warned that rising costs for raw materials it uses to make its batteries had not yet fully hit because of set contracts.
Polestar chief financial officer Johan Malmqvist told Reuters that while price increases for its cars this summer had been slow to kick in, the company would face higher costs in the fourth quarter.
"The full extent of that will then... partly offset the raw material costs," he said, adding that Polestar expected to raise prices further. Malmqvist said unfavorable exchange rates hit the company in the third quarter and will continue in the fourth seeing as much of Polestar's cost base is in China.
Gallery: Polestar 2
Supply chain bottlenecks, including a global semiconductor shortage, have made it increasingly difficult for automakers to meet targets.
That said, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said the brand remains on track to deliver 50,000 vehicles this year and expects Q4 to be the strongest quarter in the company's history. The company delivered 9,215 vehicles in the third quarter, while deliveries for the first nine months of 2022 rose 100 percent to about 30,400 cars.
The chief executive said the remaining 20,000 cars needed to meet the production target have already been made. "We are now in a fairly comfortable position of 'only' having to deliver these cars and not worry anymore about the production," Ingenlath said.
Polestar is well positioned for future growth as the brand is due to launch its first SUV, the flagship Polestar 3 model, in 2023. The Polestar 3 will be made at the plant in Chengdu, China starting in mid-2023 and at Volvo Cars' Ridgeville, South Carolina factory in mid-2024.
The US plant will also build the recently revealed Volvo EX90 with which the Polestar 3 shares the SPA2 electric architecture. The first deliveries of the Polestar 3 are expected to begin in the final quarter of 2023.
