Sept 3 (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.