You may have seen "Swedish" brand Polestar announce it's cutting 450 jobs globally as it continues to struggle to sell its range of electric vehicles (EVs) in the face of increased competition from the likes of Tesla and Chinese manufacturers.

Polestar, which was once the AMG of Volvo and had absolutely nothing to do with EVs, was turned into its own brand in 2017 with the aim of selling plug-in hybrids (now gone) and EVs.

t's at a point now that its reliance on Volvo and parent company Geely for funding its losses ($640 million cash injection in late 2023) puts a big spotlight on the brand's future potential.

The company has already said it needs around US$1.3 billion (A$2 billion) in debt and equity financing just to break even, and only if things go to plan. This is on top of its promise to double down on its cost-cutting efforts.

In the trailing twelve months of doing business, Polestar managed to lose around US$1.2 billion (A$1.8 billion in normalised EBITDA), up from US$740 million (A$1.1 billion) in 2022. In other words, the sales are going down and the losses are mounting up.

At some point, something has to give and it won't just be the dreaded propulsion system failure errors owners are reporting.