- Thomas Ingenlath will step down as Polestar CEO on October 1.
- He will be replaced by Michael Lohscheller.
- Lohscheller was previously CEO at Opel, VinFast and Nikola Motor.
Polestar, the electric car manufacturer owned by Chinese-based giant Geely, will have a new chief executive officer starting in October. On October 1, Thomas Ingenlath, who served as CEO since the company’s inception as a standalone automaker in 2017, will step down.
Michael Lohscheller will take his place and try to transform Polestar from an EV startup into a bigger player in the automotive industry. Lohscheller was CEO at several other automotive companies in the last decade. Between 2017 and 2021 he spearheaded Opel, then moved to the position of Global CEO at VinFast. After just seven months, he jumped ship to Nikola, the maker of battery- and hydrogen-powered big rigs, where he acted as both president and CEO until September 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Polestar has experienced an exceptional start-up phase and with a broader model line-up, Michael Lohscheller is the ideal leader to guide Polestar into its next chapter,” said Winfried Vahland, Polestar’s incoming Chairman. “His deep industry knowledge, especially in driving operational excellence, developing a coherent product strategy and strengthening the global market presence will be instrumental in the next chapter of Polestar’s growth.”
Polestar, which currently sells three models–the Polestar 2, Polestar 3 and Polestar 4–had a rough first half of the year in terms of sales. Globally, the Geely subsidiary sold roughly 20,200 cars, down 27% year-over-year.
All three models are currently being assembled in China, which isn’t ideal for the aspiring automaker’s U.S. ambitions, considering the hiked import tariffs. Its fortunes, stateside at least, lie on the Polestar 3 which recently entered local production in South Carolina, thus avoiding costly import duties and keeping losses to a minimum.
As a reminder, Polestar wants to fight with names like BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. In other words, it’s betting on high-priced models in a market that seemingly wants more affordable cars, so it will be interesting to see what its new CEO will bring to the table.
“Polestar has already established itself as one of the most desirable and innovative brands in the electric vehicle space, and I look forward to working with the talented team to build on this strong foundation and accelerate our development,” said Michael Lohscheller.
