Polestar profits, sales decline. Arrow shrugs.

font size

Starting the electric car

Polestar Motors

Second-quarter sales and profits fell short of Wall Street estimates. Management’s guidance for the rest of 2023 looks strong, but shares are falling anyway.

Polestar (ticker: PSNY) on Thursday morning mentioned Loss per share of 14 cents on sales of $685 million. Wall Street was looking for a loss of 13 cents per share on $756 million in sales, according to FactSet. A year ago, second-quarter sales and earnings per share were $589 million and 12 cents, respectively.

Polestar delivered approx 15,800 vehicles in the second quarter and 27,900 vehicles in the first half of the year.

Management is happy with the progress the company has made.

“We achieved record volume growth during the second quarter,” CEO Thomas Engenlath said in a press release. “Deliveries of the upgraded Polestar 2 are now increasing exponentially. With production of the Polestar 4 expected to begin in November and the Polestar 3 in the first quarter of next year, we are entering an exciting phase of higher volumes and value from our expanded model lineup.

Polestar still expects full-year deliveries to be between 60,000 and 70,000 vehicles. Gross margins for 2023 are expected to be around 4%, very close to what Wall Street expects.

monetary user The cost to build the business was about $480 million in the second quarter, which is equal to about the $460 million used in the first quarter. Total cash on hand at the end of the second quarter was approximately $1.1 billion.

The results appeared to be sufficient for investors in early trading. Polestar stock was down just 1 cent in pre-market trading at $3.82 shortly after the results were announced. But shares fell later in late morning trading, down 8.5% to $3.50 a piece. the

Standard & Poor’s 500
And

Nasdaq Composite
It rose 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

The pricing discussion by management may affect the stock.

“When we look at the average selling price, there is an effect…a negative mix effect attributable to both the channel and the product variant. There is also an element of higher discounts,” Chief Financial Officer Johan L. Malmqvist said on the company’s earnings conference call.

Mix refers to the different types of vehicles purchased, such as a base model versus more upscale features. Mix with new models tends to be stronger early on because these companies make and sell the most expensive versions first.

The normalization of the mix isn’t much of a surprise, but pricing has been an issue for all electric vehicle makers in 2023 and beyond.

Tesla

(TSLA) significantly reduces prices on its models in early 2023.

Entering Thursday’s trading, Polestar stock is down 28% so far this year and is down nearly 51% over the past 12 months. High interest rates and low car prices affected investor sentiment.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com