It’s been a busy year for Polestar. The Swedish carmaker kicked things off by introducing a rear-wheel drive option on its 2 saloon and, after an 18-month wait, it’s finally gotten around to putting its new 3 into production. And that’s crucial because while the 2 has helped the firm take the fight to the likes of the Tesla Model 3, tapping into the highly lucrative SUV market with the 3 is what could send the EV maker into the stratosphere. Hot on its heels is this, the more coupe-ish 4, which Polestar hopes will appeal to the more lifestyle-focused crossover buyer. Two big markets, two very important cars.
Where the 3 takes the form of a conventional high-riding people carrier, the Polestar 4 is far sleeker. It’s still an SUV, measuring in at 4,839mm long, 2,139mm wide and 1,544mm tall, making it a smidgen longer and wider than the Porsche Macan EV, but, much like the 3, Polestar has done everything in its power to disguise the sheer size of the thing. There’s little excess bodywork above the arches, especially at the front where the nose seems to sit lower than most crossovers. But it’s hard not to fixate on the back end and the absence of a rear window that made its sloping roofline possible.
Carmakers have been tapering off SUV roofs for yonks, which usually comes at the expense of headroom, a tiny rear window or both. By removing the rear screen, Polestar was able to scratch the strengthening beams that typically go along with it, freeing up more headroom for those who didn't call shotgun fast enough. This creates a unique environment in the back, with only daylight from the side windows and ambient lighting behind the seats illuminating the rear cabin. As a passenger, it almost feels like you’re being chauffeured in a limo, especially with all the legroom a 2,999mm wheelbase opens up. For drivers, the rear-view mirror is a digital display relaying a live feed from a rear-facing camera. It does take some getting used to, especially as it’s mounted quite close to your face. But once your eyes have adjusted it feels fairly natural.
Like the rear, the front of the cabin feels particularly fancy. This is easily the most luxurious cabin Polestar has put together, with leather covering almost every surface in sight and no visible gloss black trim elements to cover in fingerprints. Well, aside from that massive 15.4-inch landscape tablet, that is. Thankfully, the display is so vibrant that you’ll hardly notice any surface smudges. Again, this is a big step up on the portrait screen in the 3, particularly in terms of usability with a customisable home screen allowing you to put your most used apps front and centre. You still have to enter a menu to change the chassis and drive settings, but you no longer need to sift through several pages to get there. Flicking through the planets in the solar system in the ambient lighting page is a visual treat (kudos to whoever came up with the flying Polestar 6 easter egg), and for all the stick haptic feedback steering wheel buttons gets, its inclusion on the 4 is a welcome one over the vague controls on Polestar’s other models.
Bigger changes have occurred underneath. This isn’t just a lowered Polestar 3, it’s built on completely different architecture to the Volvo EX90-based SUV. For the 4, Polestar elected to use parent company Geely’s SEA platform (as seen on the Zeekr 001 and Volvo EM90 MPV), albeit with its own damper setup and, on Performance models, four-piston Brembo brakes with gold callipers. Two motor options are available: a rear-mounted single motor with 272hp and a dual setup with another 272hp unit up front for a combined 544hp, making it the most powerful production Polestar to date. A 0-62mph of 3.8 seconds puts the dual motor just over three seconds clear of the Single motor car, though the latter can squeeze up to 385 miles from the 94kWh (useable) battery - although that’s only 18 more than the range-topper can muster under WLTP.
Full disclosure: this was not PH's first go in the 4. We drove it back-to-back with the 3 in Madrid a few weeks ago. All was not well on that occasion. Even a delicate prod of the accelerator would send the car lurching forward; likewise merely touching the brake would have your head swaying and your chest pinned against the seatbelt. The steering was hyper-sensitive in all but its sportiest setting, too, which made the 4 frustratingly jerky (to say the least) and, of course, the polar opposite of the Polestar 3, which didn’t suffer from any of these issues. According to Polestar - which swiftly acknowledged the problem - the test cars all suffered from a software fault that hadn't been corrected by the latest Over The Air update. Sensing a less-than-glowing response to the problem, the firm corrected the glitch and had a pair of 4s (a Single and Dual motor) flown over to its headquarters at Bicester Heritage for us to have another go ahead of the original embargo.
The difference was pronounced. Squeezing the throttle now results in the kind of moderation you'd expect, even when the Dual motor is in its punchiest setting. Which is absolutely what you want because this is clearly Polestar’s most powerful car to date, with the straight-line speed and traction to match. Moreover, as quick off the line as the Dual motor is, it manages to sprint for the horizon without serving up all its 544hp and 506lb ft of torque in one almighty hit. Instead, power and torque delivery feel progressive, making it much easier to bring in the throttle on the exit of a corner than many other performance EVs.
Mind you, it’s not like the Polestar 4 is especially suited to the actual business of going around a corner. It’s no featherweight at 2,355kg, although it’s far from the heaviest electric SUV out there. The Polestar 3 is a good few hundred kilos heavier, and while its air suspension does a magnificent job at steadying the ship, the same cannot be said for the adaptive damper setup on the 4. You’re always aware of its mass working against you, even in the suspension’s firmest setting, as a fair bit of body roll creeps in when entering a long, sweeping bend at pace. It’s evident when you’re sat still, too, with the body comically rocking side to side with every passing vehicle.
You’d assume it’s a big softy, then - but it also manages to be bizarrely firm. No matter the road surface or damper setting, the Polestar 4 amplifies the smallest imperfections into a thrum of vibrations that constantly reverberate through the cabin. It seems unfathomable that a 2.3-tonne SUV could suffer from chassis flex, but the corners of the car do seem at odds with each other and, faced with unforgiving British roads, it is prone to juddering. One of the higher-ups at Polestar told me that different springs were under consideration for the car’s launch, so we'll have to wait and what comes of that admission.
Fortunately, the ride is better on the passively-damped Single motor car. It’s busy at all speeds and there’s still a degree of judder, but it’s better resolved than the Dual motor. Obviously you don’t get the same face-melting performance with half the power, though as is often the case with EVs it’s plenty quick enough despite taking a few extra seconds to hit 62mph. What’s more, the Dual motor has a tendency to scramble under hard acceleration when coming out of tight bends as if the front and rear axles aren’t quite in sync with one another, which naturally isn’t an issue on the Single motor. A £7,000 discount (£59,990 for the Single vs £66,990 for the Dual) means the choice between the two is an easy one.
This confirms the Polestar 4 as a car of two halves. On the one hand, the interior tech is slick and intuitive, cabin quality has taken a significant step forward and those in the back are treated to enormous amounts of space. But the 4 is let down by a disjointed chassis and an obvious lack of rolling refinement. The company wants its upmarket image to be synonymous with performance - a trait that, to one degree or another, it has achieved with the 2 and 3 - which begs the question of whether or not the new architecture is up to the task. Perhaps the fact that the upcoming 5 and 6 will be built on a dedicated aluminium platform designed in-house at Polestar speaks volumes. Either way, let's hope for its sake that the 4 is more of a bump in the road than a sign of things to come.
SPECIFICATION | POLESTAR 4 DUAL MOTOR LONG RANGE
Engine: 400V Lithium-ion battery, 94kWh useable capacity
Transmission: 2 permanent magnet synchronous electric motors
Power (hp): 544
Torque (lb ft): 506
0-62mph: 3.8 seconds
Top speed: 124mph
Weight: 2,355kg
MPG: 367 miles, efficiency 2.9 miles/kWh
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £66,990 (plus £4,000 Performance Pack)
SPECIFICATION | POLESTAR 4 SINGLE MOTOR LONG RANGE
Engine: 400V Lithium-ion battery, 94kWh useable capacity
Transmission: Single permanent magnet synchronous electric motor
Power (hp): 272
Torque (lb ft): 253
0-62mph: 7.1 seconds
Top speed: 124mph
Weight: 2,230kg
MPG: 385 miles, efficiency 3.4 miles/kWh
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £59,990
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