(Reuters) – Electric car maker Polestar said on Tuesday it had appointed former Stellantis CFO Jean-Francois Maddy as its chief financial officer, days after replacing former CEO Thomas Ingenlat.
It’s the fourth executive shakeup at the Geely-backed electric carmaker in as many months as it seeks to fight new tariffs in the European Union and growing competition from Tesla in the United States and incumbent automakers.
Last week, in a surprise move, Ingenlatt, who has headed Polestar since its inception in 2017, was replaced by Michael Lohschler — the former head of Opel and Vietnamese electric car maker VinFast.
Maddy will take over from Per Ansgar on October 21, Pollstar said. Ensgar, who joined the EV maker on a temporary basis, will return to his role as CFO at Geely’s Swedish unit.
Madi brings more than two decades of experience in the automotive industry as chief financial officer at Peugeot and Stlantis, which is parent company Fiat.
The appointment comes after Polestar announced a $300 million loan last week, on top of an earlier $950 million loan from a bank syndicate. That helped the electric car maker reach its goal of about $1.3 billion in external funding.
Polestar’s need for funding became acute in February when a Volvo Cars co-founder said he would withhold further funding. However, Geely’s major shareholder said it plans to continue supporting the company.
The company is also aiming for a double-digit gross profit by the end of the year after taking measures such as supplier negotiations to reduce production costs in its production lines.
Last week Polestar was negotiating with the European Commission over punitive tariffs on Chinese-made cars and was considering measures such as exporting some models from its factories outside China to avoid the tariffs, Ansger said.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Marie Mannes in Stockholm; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)