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Swedish electric vehicle maker Polyester on Thursday cut its delivery forecast for 2022 by 15,000 units to 50,000 vehicles due to the Covid-19 lockdown in China.
“The decline for 2022 is 100% responsible for the lockdown in China,” the electric-vehicle manufacturer said in a statement.
COVID-19 lockdowns in China have disrupted the supply chain of semiconductors and components widely used in electric vehicles, damaging companies’ manufacturing capabilities.
Polyester said that with its partners Volvo Cars and Gili Automobile Holdings, it continues to handle supply chain challenges by delivering about 29,000 vehicles in 2021.
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Polyester said it has introduced a second shift at its factory and plans to recover some production losses by the end of the year. The company added that it is confident of reaching its delivery target by 2023.
The Swedish company said its car sales more than doubled to about 13,600 and nearly tripled its number to 23,000 orders in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2021.
“Any short-term to medium-term economic impact does not dampen our goal of selling 290,000 cars by 2025 – 10 times more than what we sold in 2021,” said Thomas Ingenlath, Polyester’s chief executive officer.
Polyester, founded by Gili and Volvo Cars of China, is set to merge with Gores Guggenheim Inc., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) this year.
Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings said in April it would buy 65,000 polyester electric cars in five years.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bangalore; Edited by Krishna Chandra Iluri)