Stock price concerns aside, Polestar is on a roll at the moment. The new and improved 2 continues to be one of the UK’s best-selling EVs, regularly giving the Tesla Model 3 a run for its money in the sales charts, and there are a bunch of new models on the horizon including the four-door GT 5 and the 6 roadster. The Polestar 3, however, is arguably its most important car yet. The big bucks are still very much in SUVs, and if the Swedish-based, Chinese-owned company can build on the momentum of its first proper mass-produced EV (and learn from its shortcomings), then its financial future will start to look a whole lot rosier.
On looks alone, it’s off to a strong start. The Polestar 3 debuted all the way back in 2022 and, fortunately, it hasn’t lost any of its edge in production guise. So many modern SUVs appear cumbersome or ill-proportioned, but the Polestar 3 is surprisingly taut for a car weighing nearly 2.6 tonnes. Chiseled lines above the wheel arches help break up the high-sided bulk, as does the outstretched 2,985mm wheelbase. Adding to the (relatively speaking) athletic silhouette is the firm’s now-signature sloping roofline, which feeds into a small spoiler that the company reckons helps reduce drag and rear axle lift. That works in tandem with a front spoiler (remember the Yamaha OX99-11 concept?) plus a set of ‘blades’ at the rear for a drag coefficient of 0.29cd. Super slippery, if not quite as streamlined as some rivals like the BMW iX.
Amazingly, the swooping roofline doesn’t result in a cramped cabin. Polestar has an obsession with rear headroom, to the point where it deleted the rear window altogether on its upcoming 4 in the name of opening up more vertical space. While it hasn’t gone to such extreme measures on the 3, the standard panoramic roof both frees up more space and bathes the interior in natural light. Up front, the dash slopes downwards and there’s a big, empty storage space under the centre console, all of which help create a light and breezy feel - which you couldn’t really say about the 2.
In true Swedish style, the dash is spartan save for the central 14.5-inch portrait infotainment screen and 9-inch driver display. In-car tech has come a long way in recent years, but the fluidity and intuitiveness of Polestar’s Google-based software is right up there with the best. For the most part, the system is logical and there’s enough processing power for a slick, judder-free experience which, even with the chip shortage well behind us, is still a rarity these days. It’s as if the user experience has been given the same level of attention as every other aspect of the car. Which is not exactly a given these days.
Tech isn’t the only area where the Polestar 3 packs a punch. The dual motor setup delivers a combined 517hp (245hp up front, 272hp at the back) with the Performance Pack equipped, or 489hp without it, though the system can decouple the rear unit to eke out more range. With both motors working in tandem, Polestar claims you’ll be able to hit 62mph from a standstill in 4.7 seconds (or 5.0 secs in standard dual motor form), which is enough to keep pace with the BMW iX and leave the Audi Q8 e-tron in its dust. The 107kWh (useable) battery in the middle is the same across the lineup, with a WLTP range of up to 392 miles on the dual motor car and 348 miles for the Performance Pack.
Electric cars being quick in a straight line is nothing new of course, but what’s impressive about the Polestar 3 is that it doesn’t give you a thumping headache just by glancing at the throttle. Obviously, it’s quick off the mark and will have any unsuspecting passengers immediately pinned to the back of their seats, but the 3 doesn’t give you everything in one hit. Instead, it gradually feeds in the power before rising to a crescendo, all in the space of about a second. If anything, it makes the 3 feel even quicker than an EV that dumps everything on you, and it also means you can run in Performance mode without the car lurching forward the moment you hit the right pedal.
Just as impressive is the damping. The SUV pairs ZF adaptive dampers with two-chamber, self-levelling air suspension, which utilises an array of cameras and sensors dotted all over the car to scan the road surface and tweak the ride parameters every two milliseconds. Interestingly, the glitzy adjustable Ohlins dampers that characterised the Performance Pack-equipped Polestar 2 were ditched on the 3, apparently to the frustration of the firm’s affable chassis chief Joakim Rydholm. However, this may have been a blessing a disguise, as the 3 scythes through the switchback hairpins of our Madrid test route while confidently keeping its heftiness in check. Naturally, it’s not the last word in poise and agility with 2.5 tonnes to get turned in, but this is another SUV that manages to be very pleasant when its size and loftiness are taken into account.
Even with the suspension in its firmest setting and with the mahoosive 22-inch wheels on our test car, the Polestar 3 glides supremely well over the aggressively tall sleeping policemen dotted around the outskirts of the Spanish capital. The steering, meanwhile, is as you’d expect from a semi-performance inclined SUV: a decent amount of weight when you wind the lock on while being fairly light just off centre for darting around town. Nothing more, nothing less. Prodding a few buttons in the settings menu does relax the car’s character: it still feels plenty quick enough with the powertrain in normal mode, though the steering can feel a tad vague when switched out of its sportiest setting. There’s not a huge difference between damping modes, though Polestar says the suspension can be raised by up to 60mm if you fancy taking your 3 off-road.
The only frustration here - and it's a familiar one - is that all of these settings are buried in a sub-menu that takes a distracting amount of digging to get to. Granted, there’s a shortcut on the home screen but it's small and difficult to access while driving. Polestar argues you’ll set the car up once and be done with it, although on the basis that it's gone to the trouble of offering a decent amount of variance between the driver modes there’s a real benefit - and fun to be had - in adjusting the setup on the go. Moreover, none of this is helped by rubbish steering wheel controls that, like a good deal of Volvos, clump its buttons together into giant rocker switches like the D-pads on '90s game controllers. Annoyingly, the buttons aren’t clearly marked or illuminated, so you often find yourself selecting one option when going for another. You'd take touch controls with haptic feedback over this any day.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like here and, because it’s a Polestar, most of what you see comes lumped into the £75,900 base price. The Performance Pack lifts that figure to £81,500, bringing with it extra grunt from the motors, the sportier chassis setup, those massive 22-inch wheels and all the gold accents. The rest of the options list is comprised mostly of minor cosmetic upgrades, although there’s a pair of technology packs that bring semi-automous driving modes and, in 2025, a LiDAR system that can create a 3D image of the world around the car for a more accurate driverless experience. Naturally, this wasn’t available to test on the day, so we’ll reserve judgement for another time.
A standard dual motor wasn’t available for a back-to-back test, either, and there’s a single motor due at some point next year. But, and this is rarely the case in the EV world, the dual motor with the Performance Pack feels nicely sorted. Polestar has clearly learned its lessons from the occasionally over-reactive 2 and built a well-rounded and surprisingly capable electric SUV. Certainly there will be stiff competition from its German rivals - and whatever Jaguar is cooking up - not to mention the Tesla Model X that still seems to draw a crowd despite its age. But Polestar has said from the beginning that it sees itself more as a performance brand, and all the evidence suggests that’s still very much the case with its most important offering yet.
SPECIFICATION | POLESTAR 3 PERFORMANCE PACK
Engine: 400V Lithium-ion battery, 107kWh useable capacity
Transmission: 2 permanent magnet synchronous electric motors
Power (hp): 517
Torque (lb ft): 620
0-62mph: 4.7 seconds
Top speed: 130mph
Weight: 2,584kg
MPG: 348 miles, efficiency 2.9 miles/kWh
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £81,500
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