Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Polestar, the electric vehicle maker backed by China’s Geely, said it will seek new suppliers to get around a US government ban on Chinese software in new high tech vehicles. The ban threatens Polestar’s future in the US, but its chief executive Michael Lohscheller, said the group would continue to expand in the country despite the return of Donald Trump who has vowed to revoke the country’s electric vehicle mandates.Last week, the US commerce department finalised rules prohibiting the use of Chinese software and hardware for electric vehicles, shutting out Chinese vehicles from the American market.The carmaker was considering new non-Chinese suppliers for its electric vehicle software and other components Lohscheller said, adding that the group had enough time to find a solution before the ban came into effect from its 2027 model year vehicles. “We have a manufacturing facility in the US. We are creating American jobs,” Lohscheller said. “We will and have to find solutions because the US is a big growth market for us,” he said in an interview. Polestar was spun out of Swedish carmaker Volvo, which itself was bought by Geely in 2010, and listed in 2022. However, the electric vehicle group’s shares on Nasdaq have since languished, losing more than 90 per cent of their value as the company burnt through cash to scale up its premium electric vehicle business. Last week, Polestar revealed that it would take two more years for its free cash flow to turn positive and lowered its market expansion plans. Following a major offloading last year, Volvo retains an 18 per cent stake in Polestar, while Chinese carmaker Geely and its owner Eric Li own a combined 63 per cent stake.In the US, Polestar faces Trump’s executive order to end generous electric vehicle subsidies and a looming threat of a global tariff war. This comes on top of rising competition with Chinese rivals and Tesla in other markets.Some analysts have questioned whether the company can expand in the US under the current ownership structure.Barclays analyst Dan Levy said in a note that Polestar may “either need to exit the US or be spun out into an independent company with no control from Geely nor usage of Geely technologies”.However, Lohscheller said pulling out of the US was not an option. “I think we should hold the course” on its electric vehicle strategy, he added. “And then we will see what customers really want.”The former Opel chief stressed that Polestar’s software-defined vehicles and other technologies will set the brand apart at a time when many other electric vehicle start-ups have struggled with slowing growth in the sales of battery-powered cars. He added that order intake for its electric vehicles was up about 37 per cent in the fourth quarter due to demand for its Polestar 3 and 4 models. “Who else has this [strength in software-defined vehicles] in the market today? And the answer is Tesla, Rivian and the Chinese. That’s a big, big advantage,” he added. Lohscheller cautioned against “overreacting” to a slew of Trump’s executive orders upon taking office, including one aimed at halting distribution of unspent funding from Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation to support the electric shift. “One statement on the first day doesn’t have to solve everything. If IRA [the Inflation Reduction Act] were really stopped, let’s see because . . . there was a lot of good investment going into the US. Let’s see how that plays out,” he added.
