EV firm Polestar taps former Stellantis finance executive as CFO

(Reuters) - Electric vehicle maker Polestar said on Tuesday it has appointed former Stellantis finance executive Jean-Francois Mady as its CFO, days after replacing long-time CEO Thomas Ingenlath.

This marks the fourth executive change at the Geely-backed EV maker in the past few months as it looks to battle fresh tariffs in the European Union and rising competition from U.S.-based Tesla and legacy automakers.

Last week, in a surprise move, Ingenlath, who headed Polestar since its inception in 2017, was replaced with Michael Lohscheller — the former top boss at Opel and Vietnamese EV maker VinFast.

Mady would assume responsibilities from Per Ansgar, effective Oct. 21, Polestar said. Ansgar, who joined the EV maker on an interim basis, would return to his position as CFO at Geely's Swedish unit.

Mady brings more than two decades of experience in the automotive industry as senior finance executive at Peugeot and Fiat-parent Stellantis.

The appointment comes after Polestar last week announced a $300 million loan it had secured, adding to the previous $950 million credit it received from a bank syndicate. That took the EV maker to its target of about $1.3 billion in external funding.

Polestar's need for finance became acute in February when co-founder, Volvo Cars, said it would stop further funding. Majority shareholder Geely, however, said it intends to continue supporting the firm.

The company also targets double-digit gross margin by the year-end after it took actions such as supplier negotiations to reduce the cost of manufacturing across its product lines.

Ansgar said last week Polestar was in talks with the European Commission regarding punitive tariffs on vehicles made in China and was considering actions such as exporting some models from its factories outside China to avoid tariffs.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Marie Mannes in Stockholm; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)