Not a so thriving future for Polestar?

Polestar is still an new company, and like many other EV car makers it is not so easy to become profitable.

Tesla had a rough start too, but regarding Polestar, Kevin Paffrath, in his today analysis
don't think that Polestar will have a very thriving future.

Well, some his financials arguments go well above my head,
But been under Volvo and Geely, make Polestar to be still a valid contender.
What do you think?

The Fundamentals of This "Tesla Killer" Exposed | Polestar Stock.

 

[heltok]

Tesla has already opened the Supercharger Network to non-tesla vehicles in few European countries and I would suspect that this will be coming everywhere else soon as well. This is another revenue stream for Tesla (and regulatory requirement in some cases) and very good looking for Tesla with latest power prices (and some shady practice due to this..).

Autopilot on Tesla is actually one of the worst implementation of such system on the market, and Polestar's implementation of the "autopilot" is way better. like miles ahead (same as bmw, mercedes, VW group, ford...)
How did the OTA improve the safety of the car?! Polestar, like other manufacturers, do the OTA updates as well, by the way.

Tesla opened up some superchargers yes. But the integration is far from as good as Tesla with precooling, built in navigation, status checks etc.

Here are the latests OTA for polestar. Not bad, but not great either imo.

Updates in software version P2.6​

Note: This software release is only available in workshops, not OTA. The content of P2.6 will be included in the next OTA release .

• Improved cabin temperature control.
• Seats are activated automatically with remote climate start below 10°C/50°F ambient temperature. Heating on both front seats will be on level 1 during preconditioning.
• Improved Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) function.

Updates in software version P2.5​

• Stability improvements for issue with unlocking the vehicle with physical key.
• Radio improvements: including fixes for delay in radio text, last selected station lost on next start-up and loss of audio when using DAB radio (DAB availability may vary depending on market and model year).
• Range Assistant app improvements: center display now also shows instant consumption in the home screen tile when minimized.
• Remove paired device: possible to remove paired device through new function added in both mobile app and in-vehicle settings.
• Google Assistant support for SiriusXM added.

Updates in software version P2.4​

• Stability improvements for issue with unlocking the vehicle with physical key.
• Bug fix for charging limit issue.

 

[yessuz]

other cars do precondition if it is guided correctly as well.
worth watching this I suppose. Bjorn is one of the biggest youtubers with EVs in Norway (which is the biggest EV market), does 1000 km challenge (640 miles) and has comprehensive data for comparisons.

 

[Dikkie Dik]

other cars do precondition if it is guided correctly as well.
worth watching this I suppose. Bjorn is one of the biggest youtubers with EVs in Norway (which is the biggest EV market), does 1000 km challenge (640 miles) and has comprehensive data for comparisons.

Full list:

 

[gsmith123]

How did the OTA improve the safety of the car?!

It's not a huge difference in safety, but there have been various OTA updates that impact safety (in varying degrees):

- updated airbag deploy software
- many improvements to active safety features over the years leverage Autopilot and Tesla Vision improvements. Things like pedal misapplication mitigation. There are 2016 vehicles out there now with HW3 and the AP software has come a long way in that time.
- AP UI safety improvements, like disallowing cheat devices
- cold weather drivetrain tuning (adjusts AWD vehicles to deliver power evenly between front and back wheels for slippery conditions, so you can get going easier and are less likely to slide out the rear end)

 

[yessuz]

It's not a huge difference in safety, but there have been various OTA updates that impact safety (in varying degrees):

- updated airbag deploy software
- many improvements to active safety features over the years leverage Autopilot and Tesla Vision improvements. Things like pedal misapplication mitigation. There are 2016 vehicles out there now with HW3 and the AP software has come a long way in that time.
- AP UI safety improvements, like disallowing cheat devices
- cold weather drivetrain tuning (adjusts AWD vehicles to deliver power evenly between front and back wheels for slippery conditions, so you can get going easier and are less likely to slide out the rear end)

others do same. They do update various features.

in some cases, they do not update safety features, because it works as intended... tesla, for that matter, cannot sort the bloody auto wipers for 5 years on M3...

 

[tangible1]

I guess I'm not surprised to learn the net profit is so low.

Polestar, Rivian, Fisker, etc - seem to emphasize design over functionality as companies. They want you buying for how others perceive the car instead of for what it can do. This likely cuts out some potential customers, especially those who understand how small the differences are between each of them.

The roll out of the Polestar 3 was strange. There were images of a car under a tarp, contained in a box on an island. There was a countdown timer to the big unveiling event. There was a lot of PR, mostly focused on how much better the new thing was over everything that proceeded it.

In the meantime, try finding out about the Polestar 2. Their website had maybe 250 words total describing the car. As someone who was new to the brand, I had no clue what I would be paying for aside from the fact it was electric, had 4 wheels and Europeans like it.

Still don't know why anyone would buy one. At least with Fisker, they have their own Solar Roof.

Henrik Fisker will be credible when he's delivered a few more working cars. like ANY.
after the "Karma" catastrophe, a few grains of salt are in order.
so far all he's delivered is a website.

 

[Killer Junior]

In my day to day conversations with car and non-car people alike (friends, co-workers, family, etc.), most either want a Tesla or plans to buy one in the near future. I’d wager for most of the general public, Tesla is synonymous with EVs and probably the first brand most people think of when considering purchasing one. Other EVs rarely come up in the conversation. The competition needs to step up their game and match or surpass Tesla in many ways if they hope to capture a significant portion of that market share.

 

[jeewee3000]

In my day to day conversations with car and non-car people alike (friends, co-workers, family, etc.), most either want a Tesla or plans to buy one in the near future. I’d wager for most of the general public, Tesla is synonymous with EVs and probably the first brand most people think of when considering purchasing one. Other EVs rarely come up in the conversation. The competition needs to step up their game and match or surpass Tesla in many ways if they hope to capture a significant portion of that market share.

Tesla is recognized as a good EV either way, but I also hear many that don't want a Tesla because they don't wan't a Tesla. A bit like some people are anti-iPhone, or anti-Microsoft when considering a purchase.
A friend bought a Mercedes EQC (~€85k) after test-driving Tesla's since he finds Tesla's to have cheap looking, less luxurious interior. To each his own.

But the more price sensitive buyers will obviously gravitate to Tesla since the value for money is amazing compared to other EV's.

 

[Killer Junior]

Tesla is recognized as a good EV either way, but I also hear many that don't want a Tesla because they don't wan't a Tesla. A bit like some people are anti-iPhone, or anti-Microsoft when considering a purchase.
A friend bought a Mercedes EQC (~€85k) after test-driving Tesla's since he finds Tesla's to have cheap looking, less luxurious interior. To each his own.

But the more price sensitive buyers will obviously gravitate to Tesla since the value for money is amazing compared to other EV's.

Being anti-Tesla at this point is like being "anti-establishment". I agree that you will always have a segment of consumers who simply don't want what everyone else has and will actively seek out alternatives. What brands may not be as trendy today could be at some point in the future, and then they will go through the inevitable cycle of becoming less appealing as consumer demand grows, prices become more competitive, and the appearance of exclusivity diminishes.

 

[tangible1]

Being anti-Tesla at this point is like being "anti-establishment". I agree that you will always have a segment of consumers who simply don't want what everyone else has and will actively seek out alternatives. What brands may not be as trendy today could be at some point in the future, and then they will go through the inevitable cycle of becoming less appealing as consumer demand grows, prices become more competitive, and the appearance of exclusivity diminishes.

Elon can be polarizing as well, and while the effect of that is probably overblown, there's that in the Media and blogs.
People will chose other things for many reasons.
EV's aren't for everyone and they do not satisfy all use cases.
But with so many out there, neighbors can now see EV's successfully working for many, and so many more are at least looking at them.

As owners here, we have a better understanding of the limits and benefits, but we all got here by different routes.
Nothing happens overnight. Tesla is a 15 year evolution, to become a revolution. People are catching up.

 

[jeewee3000]

EV's aren't for everyone and they do not satisfy all use cases.

Yet. It's just a matter of time. Like how smartphones took over the world.

 

[Killer Junior]

EV's aren't for everyone and they do not satisfy all use cases.

As owners here, we have a better understanding of the limits and benefits, but we all got here by different routes.

Not yet anyway. But to support your comment, a co-worker of mine (who is in the market for a Tesla BTW) explained to me that he would never give up his ICE pickup for the simple fact that he spends a lot of time in rural areas, driving hundreds of miles out in the middle of nowhere on multi-day excursions, so an EV is out of the question in that type of scenario. The technology would have to mature to a point that would reliably satisfy that sort of requirement. I don't doubt that we will eventually arrive at that point, but right now we're not there.

I honestly hadn't considered an EV until maybe a couple years ago when we were in the market for a new mini-van. I explored the Model X at the time, but determined that it was too far out of our price range and we ended up with a Sienna AWD hybrid as our primary family hauler. This past year we looked at EVs exclusively, and it wasn't because of the proposed FTC, which we didn't learn about until we started researching. I just wanted a daily commuter that I didn't need to gas up. OTOH, we didn't necessarily want to give up our Tacoma for those excursions away from civilization out in mountain country. When my son takes it with him to college I won't have the luxury of going to certain places that I would need the Taco to get me there. Perhaps that will be answered with the release of the Cybertruck or the procurement of a Rivian, but I guess we'll have to see where the future takes us.

 

[tangible1]

Yet. It's just a matter of time. Like how smartphones took over the world.

the first 80% is straightforward.
the last 20% will take longer than would be thought.