Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller sees Elon Musk’s politics as an opportunity to steal sales from Tesla as many owners are looking at other electric vehicles.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s meddling in politics hasn’t been winning him many fans outside of the US lately. In Germany, we reported on a boycott effort that is gaining ground.
Michael Lohscheller, Polestar’s CEO, sees it as an opportunity.
Being German himself, he finds Musk comments promoting AfD, a far-right party in Germany, “unacceptable”. He said in a Bloomberg interview:
“For Germany, somebody outside of Germany endorsing right-wing political parties is a big thing. You want to know what I think about it? I think it’s totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. You just don’t do that. This is pure arrogance, and these things will not work.”
The CEO says that a lot of people are turning on Tesla because of this.
We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this. It’s important to listen closely to what they say. And I can tell you, a lot of people have very, very negative sentiment.
Some surveys showed as many as a third of Tesla owners have sold or are looking to sell their vehicles due to Elon Musk’s antics.
That could indeed be an opportunity for Polestar and the company needs it.
Sales have been lacking behind target and its stock has suffered – 92% of its value since going public.
It managed to secure some funding late last year and scaled back spending to extend its capacity to operate. It now plans to go to a more traditional dealership model to move cars.
But the biggest difference maker is the expanding lineup of vehicles that Polestar is launching.
Electrek’s Take
It is certainly an opportunity. I’m seeing more and more Tesla owners saying that they would never buy another Tesla.
Those people aren’t likely to go back to a gas car, and therefore, it is an opportunity for all other EV automakers.
I haven’t had a lot of time in Polestar vehicles. I think they look cool, but my opinion stops there. I am going to test them all next month and I will report back.
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