Polestar, the electric car manufacturer owned by Chinese-based giant Geely, will have a new chief operating officer starting next month. On October 1, Thomas Ingenlath, who served as CEO since the company’s inception as a standalone automaker in 2017, will step down.

Michael Lohscheller will take his place and try to transform Polestar from an EV startup into a bigger player in the automotive industry. Lohscheller was CEO at several other automotive companies in the last decade. Between 2017 and 2021 he spearheaded Opel, then moved to the position of Global CEO at VinFast. After just seven months, he jumped ship to Nikola, the maker of battery- and hydrogen-powered big rigs, where he acted as both president and CEO until September 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.