Polestar (PSNY) began trading on the Nasdaq on Fri 24 June 22

• Polestar already has more than 55,000 vehicles on the road in China, Europe and the U.S. It has a factory up and running in China and an assembly line set to begin production later this year in a South Carolina factory shared with Volvo.
• Polestar began as a joint venture between Volvo Cars and its Chinese owner Zhejiang Geely in 2017.
• CEO Thomas Ingenlath

First day of trading, June 24, the EV maker’s shares ended the day at $13.00, up 15.8% .

So far, most SPAC mergers with electric vehicle companies haven’t worked out well for investors. Even the relatively more successful cases of Lucid Group, Fisker and Nikola are currently trading at 67%, 69% and 92% below their post-merger highs, respectively. EV truck maker Rivian, which went public via a traditional IPO, has also struggled. Its shares are down 84% from its post-IPO high.

Over the next three years, the company plans to add three vehicles to its current model, the compact Polestar 2 crossover built in China. The additions are a large SUV, the Polestar 3; a midsize crossover, the Polestar 4; and a large sedan, the Polestar 5, which is intended to serve as the brand’s flagship vehicle.

All will be fully electric and all will be offered in the U.S., Europe and China. Polestar plans to build its vehicles in all three regions.

Electric cars : Solid-state lithium battery maker QuantumScape

Solid-state lithium battery maker QuantumScape is becoming a publicly traded entity through a merger with special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Kensington Capital Acquisition (NYSE:KCAC). QuantumScape wants to disrupt the automotive industry—and the EV space—by offering a better mousetrap.

Including $200 million from the Kensington’s trust fund and a $500 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, the transaction will provide about $700 million in proceeds to QuantumScape. The deal values the company at about $3.3 billion.

None of the current shareholders are using the transaction as a chance to cash out—a good sign for any SPAC transaction. After the deal closes, QuantumScape will have north of $1 billion of cash on its balance sheet.

For QuantumScape, the “SPAC deal represented was a much faster and more streamlined way to become public compared with the traditional IPO process,” explains founder and CEO Jagdeep Singh. “Combined with the value that partnering with Kensington in particular brings—they’re a bunch of auto guys—it just made the most sense to take this route.”

Kensington Capital, the SPAC sponsor, is an automotive industry focused investment bank based outside of New York City. Justin Mirro, the SPAC’s chairman and CEO, began his career at General Motors (GM) before moving to investment banking focused on the automotive sector.
EVs appear to be taking over the car business—as the epic rise in Tesla (TSLA) stock portends. Telsa is now the world’s most valuable car company by a wide margin.

That makes EV batteries very important to the auto industry and to investors. Solid-state batteries promise lower cost and higher power density than existing battery technology. That’s a panacea for EV makers—a battery that is relatively cheap and light weight, making the upfront costs of EVs comparable to gasoline-powered cars. Solid state batteries charge faster too.

It’s taken a while to get solid state right. QuantumScape believes it is there, pointing out that Volkswagen (VOW.Germany) has tested and validated Quantum’s solid-state batteries and plans to commercialize them by 2025. That might feel like a long way off, but “the automotive cycle is long,” explains Singh. “People have recognized solid state potential for decades.”