Polestar, a private equity-backed electric car maker, is valued at $20 Billion in a US SPAC deal!

Polestar, the Swedish manufacturer of electric vehicles, has agreed to go public through a special purpose acquisition deal with the US blank-check company Gores Guggenheim. This SPAC agreement would value the carmaker at 20 Billion dollars.

According to people familiar with the agreement, The WSJ reported last Sunday that the SPAC deal was close. The post on Electomo has been updated to incorporate details from the official announcement. When the merger is completed, the combined company will be owned by “Polestar Automotive Holding UK Limited“, a new public corporation. This corporation will most likely be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “PSNY”.

Polestar was founded in 2017 and it represents the electric performance brand of the Volvo Vehicle Group, however, both are managed by Zhejiang Geely, a giant Chinese automaker. Polestar received 550 million dollars in April from investors such as I Cube Capital, Chongqing Chengxing Equity Investment Fund Partnership, and the Zibo City Government.

The carmaker, under this agreement, follows a large number of ‘electric vehicle & electric vehicle-related companies that have gone SPAC in the previous two years, including Proterra, Arrival, Bird, Lucid Motors, Nikola, and EVgo as well as many others.

Polestar’s goal is to provide a life-cycle assessment framework for the EV industrial sector, in which the whole manufacturing, sales, and final process are transparent & traceable, allowing the company to produce carbon-neutral cars. In June, the carmaker announced its plans to build its first SUV, called the Polestar 3, in the U.S., with global production expected to begin in 2022. High-quality components and a production plant inside the United States are not inexpensive endeavors. If somehow the claims are true, then making them public could be a way for the carmaker to get the money it needs to reach its objectives.

The agreement will also help the company get to market faster within the United States, allowing the carmaker to compete with Tesla. The company has touted its Polestar 2, a sedan, as a vehicle that is superior to that of Tesla, but it will require capital to become the same household name in the electric car market, and one that can be trusted. The carmaker was forced to recall all of its global automobiles last year due to defective components.

Gores Guggenheim raised 800 million dollars of cash in its initial public offering (IPO) in March, and it is revealed in July that it was in negotiations with Polestar Corp.

CNBC Television | EV maker Polestar going public via a SPAC with Gores Guggenheim.