manager-magazin.de: Mr Ingenlath, with Polestar Volvo is building up its own electric car brand. Unlike VW with its ID models or Mercedes with its EQ family, you do not create a completely new brand, but with Polestar, you are modifying a former tuning and performance company for the electric car brand. Why so complicated?
Thomas Ingenlath: Polestar is a creature of the Volvo brand, but we strictly limit the brand to electro-mobility. We have taken a very evolutionary path and may have even made it a little more difficult by taking an existing brand and redefining it. But Polestar simply has this name, which resonates with so many positive associations. And we have also heard the spirit of a racing team. Polestar has its roots in motorsport.
What advantage should that have?
Many of our employees are still used to improving things from race weekend to race weekend and driving developments in very short sprints. Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about turning management styles into just such a way of working. If you want to shorten development times, you have to work the way car racing teams and how we are used to Polestar.
Thomas Ingenlath
Polestar
Thomas Ingenlath, born in 1963, has been CEO of Polestar, the electric car brand of the Swedish-Chinese car manufacturer Volvo, since 2017. Before that, Ingenlath was Volvo’s chief designer for 5 years. Ingenlath started his career at the Volkswagen Group, where he designed vehicles for Audi and Skoda, among others.
Just that your team can no longer work with internal combustion engines.
That’s right. When I came to Polestar two years ago, we had to make a radical break with the past. I had to explain that combustion engines and racing are the past and electric mobility is our future. This was sometimes not easy, every new beginning is often an overcoming. We also said goodbye to the racing series. For this we have gained some great people for the implementation of electromobility. Since the passion is then quickly flourished again. We have achieved a lot in only two years. For example, last week we inaugurated our new factory in Chengdu. Such success stories weld together a team, our team is morally fit again.
How do you want to arrive against the electric models of about Mercedes and Audi, where do you position yourself?
Our model Polestar 2, which we show at the Frankfurt Motor Show, is still relatively alone as a premium vehicle. Depending on the equipment, the vehicle will cost between 40,000 and 60,000 euros. The first electric car models from Daimler, Audi and Jaguar rather only start at 80,000 euros. The only really directly comparable competitor is Tesla with his Model 3.
How do you want to make Tesla customers dissuasive?
Our vehicle design is different than Tesla. When they started, the company showed very successfully that an electric car does not have to come along like a “freak”. Tesla had very attractive athletic attributes, but still used very conventional sports car aesthetics. We try to implement new aesthetic principles in the Polestar models. In addition, anyone who buys or rents a Polestar electric model can be sure of one thing: in terms of quality, service and spare parts supply, we are a fully trusted, professional brand. We have the great advantage of being able to rely on Volvo’s established processes and infrastructure – and that’s what our customers will notice very quickly. There are no drawbacks.
They compete with an electric sedan, the German premium manufacturers initially rely on SUVs with their wide-range electric models
Yes, and I want to be a little bold now. The design claim of the Polestar 2 is a bit different than the competition. We’re not just doing a blue decor sticker on the outside or a green bar to underline how eco-friendly we are. We are very avant-garde in our design. And inside we have a little revolution.
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