Recently, at the opening ceremony of Polestar's first brand experience center in China - Polestar Shanghai Experience Center, Li Donghui, CEO of Geely Holding Group, publicly responded for the first time to the reasons and future plans for Geely's acquisition of Polestar Automotive. He stated that Polestar is the bridgehead for Geely Holding Group's global layout and has important strategic significance for the group's global development.
As the "big parent" of Jixing, Geely Holding Group will support Jixing's independent development globally and in China, provide comprehensive operational, technical, and financial support for Jixing, and participate in Jixing's financing plans in a timely manner. In addition, Geely's technological strength, advantageous resources, and competitive supply chain system will also be fully opened up to Jixing, "Li Donghui added.
Polestar was born from Volvo's high-performance division and announced in 2017 as an independent high-performance luxury brand, jointly developed by Volvo and Geely Holding Group. In February of this year, Volvo announced plans to distribute 62.7% of its approximately 48% stake in Polestar to Geely Holding Group. After the reduction, Volvo's stake in Polestar decreased to 18%, and Geely Holding Group took over Volvo as the largest shareholder of Polestar.
Regarding this acquisition, Shen Ziyu, Chairman and CEO of Jixing Technology, also stated in an interview with First Financial and other media that one of the missions of China's automotive industry is to successfully enter the markets of developed Western countries. However, the reality is that Chinese brands are difficult to be truly accepted by Western markets, and Jixing is an important strategic starting point for Geely's globalization.
With the help of its popularity in overseas markets, Jixing Automobile has currently established a presence in 27 countries worldwide. Moreover, the sales structure of Jixing Motors is already dominated by overseas markets, especially the European market. According to public information, the global market sales of Polestar in 2021 were 29000 units, 51500 units in 2022, and 54626 units in 2023, with more than half of the sales coming from the European market. In addition, Jixing is also one of the few car brands produced in China and sold to the United States. According to relevant reports, it is estimated that Polestar Motors sold 3555 pure electric sedans, Polestar 2, in the United States in the first half of this year.
Under the "big stick" of tariffs in Europe and America, the Polestar 3 has recently started production in South Carolina, USA, and the Polestar 4 will also be produced in South Korea by mid-2025.
After Geely Holding Group became the largest shareholder, Jixing Automobile, which originally focused on overseas markets, also began to accelerate its efforts in the Chinese market. It is reported that the main plan of Jixing Automobile at present is to continue investing in products, including Jixing 3, Jixing 4, Jixing 5, and Jixing 6. In terms of sales channels, Jixing Automobile has already landed in more than 50 Jixing brand spaces and experience centers. In the future, Jixing will develop and launch more intelligent, localized, and suitable models for the Chinese market. Among them, Polaris 7 and Polaris 8 are currently under planning and are expected to be released successively in the next two years.
In addition to product planning, the new management team of Polaris China also made its first public collective appearance. Qinpei Ji, the Chief Operating Officer of Polestar Technology with 12 years of work experience at Volvo, will be responsible for overall Polestar sales, channel development, and marketing business segments. Qin Peiji stated in an interview with reporters that the top priority of his current job is to establish sales confidence, including cultivating the confidence of sales personnel and promoting their understanding of the brand concept.