Polestar (PSNY) is launching a smartphone beside its first electric SUV in China
Up-and-coming EV maker Polestar (PSNY) is launching a smartphone in December as its first electric SUV, the Polestar 4, begins rolling out in China.
Polestar’s CEO Thomas Ingenlath told CNBC that the EV maker plans to begin Polestar 4 production, with deliveries expected by the end of the year.
Ingenlath also mentioned that Polestar will take an innovative approach by launching its first smartphone in December. The new smartphone will carry the Polestar brand name while making its vehicles more like “mobile phones on wheels.”
The move comes as buyers in China prefer tech-oriented, connected experiences with the latest features.
Polestar’s new smartphone emerges from the EV maker’s alliance with Chinese tech company Xingji Meizu Group. Polestar formed a joint venture with the tech company in June to advance its in-vehicle operating system (OS) for the Chinese market.
Geely, Polestar’s parent company, bought a majority stake (nearly 80%) in Meizu last year to expand its digital platform solutions.
Polestar smartphone coming in December
Meizu was once one of China’s most popular smartphone makers, known as a potential Android rival. However, the tech company lost market share to more prominent players like Xiaomi and Apple.
By partnering with Meizu, “we will be able to offer the locally tailored user experience that both drivers and passengers expect,” Ingenlath explained.
Meanwhile, with the tech company’s help, “Polestar will take the lead in the field of smart mobility,” Xingji Meizu chairman Ziyu Shen said.
Ingenlath mentioned that the Polestar smartphone will be a “premium” device to link to its premium EVs. He added:
It’s not just good enough to bring a great European design to China, you have to be very, very special about what you offer to the market when it comes to software.
Polestar is not the only up-and-coming EV maker with launching a smartphone. China’s own NIO is also launching a mobile phone to improve the user experience.
NIO received its license to access the internet in China in July, crossing the last major hurdle before it can be sold there. However, the NIO phone is powered by Android.
Without Google Android mobile OS, Polestar can customize the operating system on the phone while syncing it up to the car. Meizu is creating an OS for Polestar based on its own FlyMe.
Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC that launching a smartphone enables Polestar to bundle software, apps, services, and features (think Apple).
The smartphone will debut alongside its first electric SUV in China, the Polestar 4. Ingenlath says the Polestar 4 is positioned as “more premium, more luxurious” than Tesla’s Model Y.
The electric SUV will start at around $60,000 and is designed to take on rivals like the Porsche Macan.
Meanwhile, Polestar’s first electric SUV in the US, the Polestar 3, will begin production in the first quarter of 2024. It will launch in two versions (long-range dual motor and performance), with the standard model starting at $82,900 with up to 300 miles range expected.
Electrek’s Take
The Chinese auto market is rapidly transitioning to the digital, electric era. Domestic EV makers like BYD, NIO, and others continue gaining market share by offering unique user experiences.
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley has mentioned this before, saying he had a “real epiphany” after visiting China.
Farley explained, “It’s interesting to see how customers are no longer just attracted to traditional luxury brands with EVs or even hardware design anymore.” Instead, he said, “The best new brands are offering integrated digital, retail, lifestyle, and experience that are software-defined.”
Other legacy automakers, like Volkswagen and Audi, are outsourcing technology to help them attract local market share.
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Tesla (TSLA) is no longer confidently stating growth in its automotive business for 2025, and it has delayed updating its guidance until the next quarter after a disappointing performance in the first three months of the year.
2024 was Tesla’s first year in a decade where its vehicle deliveries went down year-over-year.
Just a few months ago, in January, Tesla was confident in predicting that it would return to growth in 2025:
“With the advancements in vehicle autonomy and the introduction of new products, we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.”
Today, Tesla released its Q1 2025 financial results, confirming that it had its worst quarter in years to start 2025.
The automaker is now clearly not as confident about returning to growth in its automotive business this year.
Tesla updated its “outlook” section this quarter to highlight the potential impact of trade policies and now no longer discusses automotive growth in isolation. Instead, it bundled automotive and energy businesses together and said that it will “revisit its 2025 guidance” next quarter:
It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services. While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment. We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.
Tesla’s vehicle deliveries are already down about 50,000 units so far this year compared to last year.
It will be challenging to catch up in the current macroeconomic situation.
Tesla again guided the start of production of “new affordable models” in the first half of 2025, which could help the automaker to deliver more cars.
However, as we have previously reported, these new vehicles are expected to be stripped-down Model Y and Model 3, which will cannibalize Tesla’s current sales and limit its growth to those products.
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US DC fast charging is becoming more reliable, and charging stations are getting bigger and busier, according to a new Q1 2025 report from the EV data analysts at Paren.
DC fast charging station reliability is on the rise
Paren’s latest US Reliability Index – “Can I successfully charge at this charger?” – increased from 81.2 points in Q4 2024 to 82.6 points in Q1 2025, a notable jump of 1.7%. According to Bill Ferro, CTO at Paren, “This continues a quarterly trend across the US non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure, which suggests that the ongoing efforts to replace or sunset older hardware are having a positive impact on station uptime. In addition, newer entrants into the field are bringing time-tested hardware along with enhanced driver experiences.”
Utah, Alaska, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Nevada were the top-ranked states for DC fast charging reliability in Q1 2025.
Growth slows, but charging stations are getting larger
New DC fast charging ports grew to 55,580 at the end of Q1 2025, up 3,667 from last quarter, with total stations reaching 10,839, an increase of 794. This is fewer new additions compared to the surge seen at the end of 2024, reflecting typical seasonal slowdowns due to winter weather. However, there’s a bright spot: the average number of ports per station among non-Tesla networks rose to 3.9, compared to 2.7 year-over-year. The Tesla Supercharger network now averages 13 ports per station.
Utilization rates reflect the urban-rural divide
Average utilization – that’s the minutes of a charging session as a percentage of time a station is open each day – dropped slightly from 16.6% in Q4 2024 to 16.2% in Q1 2025, following typical holiday travel patterns. But overall, charging use is climbing, especially in dense urban areas with significant rideshare and apartment communities that rely heavily on public chargers.
Early days for NACS transition
The Combined Charging System (CCS) remains dominant, with 59% of new ports, and the shift toward Tesla’s NACS (J3400) standard is still in its very early stages. Only 104 non-Tesla NACS ports were added this quarter at non-Tesla networks, so drivers of new non-Tesla vehicles need to use their adapters if they want to use Superchargers.
Fixed pricing prevails
Charging operators primarily use fixed pricing (80%), with Time of Use (TOU) pricing making up 16%. Pay-by-time options are rare, used only 4.2% of the time.
California is the only major state where TOU pricing surpasses fixed pricing, while many states, such as Oklahoma, Vermont, and Arkansas, almost exclusively utilize fixed pricing models.
As for the most expensive places to fast charge your EV? The top four metropolitan statistical areas are all in California, with average rates at $0.60 or $0.61 per kWh.
Rural and low-income areas at risk
The Trump administration’s cancellation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program poses a significant threat to rural and low-income communities. Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, cautioned, “Our data is a harbinger of less expansion in rural and lower-income markets as CPOs will increasingly focus on urban markets, seeing high utilization, often north of 30%, versus markets with less than 5% utilization.”
‘Charging 2.0’ – a new industry phase
McDonald summed up the report by marking 2024 as a pivotal year, stating, “2024 was a year of mixed news in the US DC fast charging industry, but it will be remembered as a pivotal turn to a new era we are calling ‘Charging 2.0’. Charge-point operators and new players in the industry are increasingly focused on creating a great customer experience, improving reliability of chargers, and reaching profitability – a shift from chasing the availability of incentives, racing to get chargers in the ground, and then crossing your fingers that utilization will grow over time.”
Read more: Trump just canceled the federal NEVI EV charger program
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Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the first quarter (Q1) and full-year 2025 after market close today.
We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.
Tesla Q1 2025 earnings expectations
As we reported in our Tesla Q1 2025 earnings preview yesterday, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $21.345 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.41 per share.
The expectations had been significantly downgraded over the last month, as analysts were surprised by Tesla’s announcement of much lower deliveries than expected in the first quarter.
Did Tesla meet them?`
Tesla Q1 2025 financial results
After the market closed today, Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter and confirmed that it missed expectations with earnings of $0.27 per share (non-GAAP), and it also missed revenue expectations with $19.335 billion during the last quarter.
This is a big miss for Tesla despite the company admitting to selling a lot more regulatory credits this quarter.
At $595 million in credit sales, Tesla would have lost money without it in Q1 2025:
In short, Tesla is on the verge of being a money-losing company.
We will be posting our follow-up posts here about the earnings and conference call to expand on the most important points (refresh the page to see the most recent posts):
Here’s Tesla’s Q1 2025 shareholder presentation in full:
Here’s Tesla’s conference call for the Q1 2025 results:
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