Gothenburg, May 8, 2026, 21:04 (CEST)
- Polestar sold a record 13,126 cars in the first quarter, up 7%, but revenue barely moved.
- Net loss more than doubled to $383 million as tariffs, price cuts and foreign-exchange effects hit margins.
- The EV maker is leaning on Europe, a wider dealer network and new models to steady the business.
Polestar’s first-quarter loss more than doubled even as the Swedish electric-vehicle maker posted its strongest start to a year, underscoring how tariffs and price pressure are overwhelming higher deliveries. The company reported a net loss of $383 million, compared with $166 million a year earlier, while revenue edged up 0.2% to $633 million.
The numbers matter now because Polestar is trying to prove it can grow without burning through cash at the same pace. Its cash position fell to $676 million at the end of March from $1.16 billion at the end of December, a sharp drop for a company still funding model launches and a bigger sales network.
The results also land in a tougher EV market. Polestar said “intensified competition,” EU and U.S. tariffs, foreign exchange and normal first-quarter weakness offset cost cuts, while Reuters reported that the company’s U.S.-listed shares fell nearly 8% after the update on Thursday. Reuters
Polestar sold 13,126 vehicles in the quarter, up from 12,263 a year earlier. But more volume did not translate into much more sales, partly because customers bought fewer higher-priced Polestar 3 vehicles and more Polestar 4 cars, while carbon-credit sales fell.
Gross margin, the share of revenue left after the direct cost of building and selling cars, swung to negative 3.2% from positive 10.3% a year earlier. Polestar blamed pricing pressure, EU and U.S. tariffs, lower carbon-credit income and one-off effects, though it said cost reductions and a higher share of Polestar 4 helped partly offset the hit.
“The first quarter saw us deliver strong volume growth in a very competitive market,” Chief Executive Michael Lohscheller said in the company’s release. He said Polestar was moving faster to “adjust our business model, become leaner and improve manufacturing efficiencies.” Polestar
On a call with analysts, Lohscheller was blunter. “The world around us continues to throw up challenges,” he said, adding that market conditions, tariffs and seasonality more than offset steps taken to improve the cost base. Investing
Europe remains the center of the plan. Lohscheller said on the call that sales in Europe rose 11% and made up 78% of total sales, with growth of 20% in the UK, 35% in Germany and 17% in Sweden. That puts Polestar’s near-term push closer to premium European rivals and away from some of the tariff strain tied to China-built vehicles sold into the U.S. and EU.
Polestar is also changing how it sells cars. It had 230 sales points at the end of the quarter, up from 159 a year earlier, and aims to reach about 250 globally by the end of 2026. The company is shifting from smaller city-center spaces toward fuller dealerships where buyers can test-drive cars, service them and buy used vehicles.
Funding is still central. Polestar said it renewed more than $1.4 billion of facilities in the quarter and secured $700 million of new equity from financial institutions, with arrangements tied to Geely Sweden Holdings. It also said an extra 50 million euros for its green trade finance facility had been credit-approved, subject to documentation.
The product schedule is meant to buy time and widen the addressable market. Polestar plans a new Polestar 4 variant in late 2026, a successor to the Polestar 2 in early 2027, the Polestar 7 compact SUV in 2028 and the Polestar 6 roadster, while production of the Polestar 7 is planned in Europe.
But the risks are plain. If price cuts deepen, tariffs stay high, or the new dealer model takes longer to lift private sales, Polestar could need more capital before margins recover. The company itself warned that its ability to raise funding, cut costs, execute launches and handle tariff changes could affect future results.
Polestar did not give a full-year financial outlook. It expects to publish second-quarter retail sales volumes on July 9.
