Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath is stepping down amid flagging sales

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath is resigning from his position and will be replaced by Michael Lohscheller, who previously served as CEO of Stellantis-owned carmaker Opel, the automaker announced Tuesday.

The move comes as Polestar has struggled to keep its finances up amid a wider slowdown in EV sales growth. It has gone through several rounds of layoffs and recently saw Volvo drastically reduce its stake in the company. Polestar is expected to report its second quarter earnings on August 29th. The company’s stock is currently selling for less than $1.

Ingenlath has been at the helm since Polestar’s inception in 2017. He oversaw the release of Polestar’s first two models: the $150,000 hybrid Polestar 1 sports coupe, and the more mainstream $60,000 Polestar 2 fastback sedan. The Polestar 3, which is an SUV, was released this year and is the company’s first model to be produced in the US.

But Tesla’s price cuts, increasing competition from European automakers, and recurring headaches around charging have lead to a softening in EV demand. Polestar said it lost $231 million in the first quarter of 2024, up from $219 million over the same period the previous year.

Polestar’s ties to China — like Volvo, it is owned by Chinese automaker Geely — are also looking increasingly fraught, as the US, EU, and Canada consider new tariffs on EVs imported from the country. Geely is now the company’s main financial backer and Polestar’s factory is located in Chengdu, China.

“I am very proud of what we’ve achieved together in the last seven years,” Ingenlath said in a statement. “We had the vision of an electric premium brand which puts performance and design at its core. And we made it, the dream became reality.”

Prior to joining Polestar, Ingenlath’s experience was mostly in design. He served as chief exterior designer for Volkswagen before being appointed chief designer at Škoda in 2000. In 2006 he was promoted to director of design at the Volkswagen Design Center in Potsdam.

In an interview on the Decoder podcast earlier this year, Ingenlath spoke about his experience as a designer, and how that informed his work as CEO.

“To a certain degree, you have to take that risk of projecting what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “Where is consumer taste going? I had to learn as a designer to be very much on my own — with whatever data you try to prove it with.”

Lohscheller’s appointment marks a shift in focus for Polestar — perhaps away from the minimalist designs that marked Ingenlath’s tenure. In addition to Opel, he has also served as chief executive of Vinfast, the buzzy Vietnamese EV company, and Nikola, which is producing hydrogen-powered semi trucks.

“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,” Winfried Vahland, Polestar’s incoming chairman, said in a statement. Vahland, who was appointed to Polestar’s board in June, comes to Polestar after serving as chair and CEO of Škoda.