The Electrical Automobile Council foyer group has appointed Samantha Johnson as interim CEO, following her departure as managing director of the embattled Chinese language-Swedish model Polestar’s Australian division.
Ms Johnson succeeds Electrical Automobile Council founder Behyad Jafari because the now-interim head of the foyer group after the latter spent eight years within the high job – throughout which period electrical car (EV) gross sales have risen to eight per cent of Australia’s new automobile market.
Polestar is considered one of only a dozen carmakers and distributors that are members of the Electrical Automobile Council, with its remaining supporters made up of vitality firms, EV charger suppliers, and associated companies.
A everlasting successor to Ms Johnson is but to be named, with interim substitute Jeremy Goh thanking Polestar Australia’s former govt.
“Samantha has been instrumental to Polestar’s success in Australia since becoming a member of the model in 2021 from Volvo Automobiles to supervise the preliminary launch section, set up the model’s Australian operations, and set the course for Polestar’s future success.
“We thank Samantha for her contribution and want her all the easiest for the brand new chapter.”
Polestar is now not a member of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), having give up the foyer group earlier this 12 months over its stance on the upcoming New Automobile Effectivity Customary (NVES).
Ms Johnson’s appointment to the foyer group place comes shortly after month-to-month gross sales of EVs in Australia shrunk for the primary time since late 2020 (with 6294 gross sales in April), but additionally amid Polestar’s personal woes regionally and abroad.
Between January and April 2024, 448 Polestar 2s had been offered in Australia, down on the 670 deliveries of the EV throughout the identical interval final 12 months.
Whereas its new Polestar 4 SUV isn’t due in showrooms till August, earlier this month costs of the Polestar 2 had been reduce by as much as $15,000 till June 9.
Polestar’s struggles haven’t been restricted to Australia.
Final week, Polestar introduced it had been notified by the Nasdaq that it has 60 days to submit a plan of compliance after failing to file each its full-year 2023 and first-quarter 2024 monetary stories in a well timed method.
Its 2023 monetary report was initially as a consequence of be filed on the finish of February, however this deadline was prolonged to the top of April. Neither of those deadlines had been met.
The announcement got here after Polestar mentioned in January it could retrench 450 employees, about 15 per cent of its workforce, in a bid to scale back exterior spending and edge nearer to breaking even.
In February, former guardian firm Volvo offloaded a 30 per cent stake in Polestar to its personal guardian firm, Chinese language automobile big Geely, which it valued at 9.5 billion Swedish krona (A$1.4 billion).
Whereas Polestar secured US$950 million (A$1.46 billion) in funding from a syndicate of 12 world banks in late February, the funding didn’t attain the US$1.3 billion (A$2bn) in exterior funding Polestar beforehand mentioned it could want to interrupt even in 2025.
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