Polestar CEO: “We’re Not Building Cheap S***”

Sliding into the passenger seat of the Polestar 3, I fasten the maize yellow seat belt across my body. Then I turn to my temporary chauffeur for the next 30 minutes: Thomas Ingenlath, the polished (and now outgoing) German CEO of Polestar. It’s not often one is shuttled around by a high-ranking executive while asking probing questions, and he proves to be adept at coming up with contemplative answers while one-pedal driving an electric Polestar 3.

[Editor’s note: This interview was conducted just before news broke that Ingenlath will be resigning as Polestar’s CEO at the end of September. Obviously, we would’ve asked some different questions had we known. But since he’s still in charge for a few more weeks and has a lot to say, we decided this was still worth publishing.]

En route, I learn more about how Polestar has tried to emerge from underneath Volvo’s shadow since parent company Geely separated the two earlier this year. To make a relevant analogy for early September, Polestar is a kid heading off to college with newfound freedom in hand. But by the same token, what it does with that freedom over the next four years is critical if the company is going to live to see 2030.

“We are going to challenge the German premium brands,” Ingenlath tells me. “We have a proposition here for people who might otherwise shop for [other luxury brands]. It’s clear that we are not building cheap shit.”

If Polestar seems a little feistier of late—see Ingenlath’s response to the reveal of the new Ford Capri—you’re not imagining it. And Ingenlath offers up more candid truths when the conversation turns to Tesla. He wants to be clear he’s not directly calling Tesla’s cars “cheap shit,” but adds that in a teardown analysis between the Model 3 and Polestar 2, the difference in quality is clear.

“[The Model 3] is well-designed in terms of making it very cheap to produce,” he says. “But Jesus, how they managed to make one screen and sell it like it’s the most advanced thing instead of saying, ‘Actually, we saved that piece [he points at the driver information display] and that would cost you $500 but we took it out.’ That’s where I think, ‘Wow, that’s great marketing that they managed to sell it as high tech when really it was an amazing effort in doing it cost effectively.”

Polestar is going to keep gunning for its competition, with a parade of new models on the way to build a full lineup. We’ve already seen Polestar’s upcoming 5 sedan and 6 sports car, with a nebulous Polestar 7 model expected to debut in 2027. This summer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Polestar unveiled its latest BST (“beast”) concept, which the automaker calls “an exploration of just how extreme a Polestar 2 could be.” Built as the predecessor to the upcoming Polestar 6, which will boast a dual-motor, all-wheel drive setup and 884 horsepower, the BST is an amuse bouche for the main course.

Meanwhile, Ingenlath commandeered the first Polestar 2 concept in 2020 as his daily driver, parking it at Polestar’s Gothenburg, Sweden headquarters. I mean, if I were the CEO, I’d do the same.

To stay fresh and further break out of the Volvo box, Polestar just named Philipp Römers (formerly of Audi) as its new head of design. It will be interesting to see how the company’s design language evolves from here. Ingenlath also held executive design positions at Volkswagen, Skoda, and Volvo, where he developed the modern Volvo look, and his departure as CEO could further open up Polestar to the influence of Romers and others.

“Decision making is not the problem,” he says. “I mean, I have to refer again to the bloody design side because let’s face it, when running a design department you very often have to make decisions where you cannot have a simple evaluation and say, ‘oh, it’s for that reason.’ It is very often [you have to] consider where society is going, where your gut feelings are, all the information you have, and you have observed how you make a decision out of that. And you have to bear the consequences.”

Ingenlath has been riding a sometimes-violent wave in the EV space since taking the helm at Polestar in 2017.

“What I’ve learned is that today I don’t know what the biggest challenge is ahead, because times are so unpredictable and it’s so full of surprises,” he says. “We just have to be prepared to adapt.”

During the height of the pandemic, Polestar was ramping up and just starting to deliver cars. Pivoting from direct in-person service to virtual handovers alone is enough for an automaker executive to start tearing their hair out. Improvisation has been Polestar’s modus operandi since the start, Ingenlath says, including shifting manufacturing plans. For instance, building the Polestar 3 in Charleston, South Carolina wasn’t in the original plan, but Ingenlath says the company realized the globalization of its manufacturing footprint was coming much earlier than expected.

What makes Polestar uniquely positioned to adapt to changes like these is that it’s “simply still a fairly nimble and fast organization.” Polestar doesn’t have the kind of “legacy behavior” that would make a shift cumbersome, he asserts.

I asked him to consider the past seven-plus years he’s been with Polestar and tell me if this past year has been more challenging, less challenging, or pretty much the same.

“It has continued to be challenging. Always,” he says instantly. “You think, ‘Come on, when we are through this year then it’ll be much better,’ and there are always new challenges. My God, you know how people warn you that setting up a new company, you will go through hell. And I have to say it’s bloody tough.”

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