The arrival of two new Polestar models to Ireland next year is designed to dramatically accelerate the profile of a brand dedicated to premium electric performance, writes Brian Byrne. The Polestar 3 large SUV will be first here, and will be followed by the Polestar 4, a coupe-SUV which will slot between the 2 and 3. An updated version of the Polestar 2 will also roll out in 2024, making the Chinese-owned brand a very serious contender against the European premium EV competition from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.
The arrival of the 3 will also put up the gloves right in the face of US EV front-runner Tesla, with the car directly challenging the Model Y large SUV. On my first look at the new Polestar, it's a long way ahead of the Tesla in style and interior quality. Will that be enough to not just knock the American car off its perch, but also drag customers past the come-hither dealership doors of the luxury cars from Stuttgart and Munich? Hmm, it's going to be an interesting time.
A quick recap on the Polestar brand. Originally a performance version of Volvo, when the long-established Swedish brand was taken over by Chinese carmaker giant Geely, they afterwards hived off Polestar as a performance brand in its own right, producing only battery electric models. The Polestar 1 never came to Ireland because it wasn't produced in RHD. The Polestar 2 has been building along quietly in single-model solitary since it arrived and recently achieved 300 unit sales for 2023. The 3 is now available to order.
In looks the latest Polestar certainly makes a big shift from being labelled as a Volvo with a longer name. Unlike the 2 which has visual cues making it seem fairly like its Volvo XC40 cousin, the Polestar 3 is very distinctively different from anything in the Volvo stable-yard. Variations on the flying boomerangs logo abound in the very futuristic headlamp systems, and the triangular opes on the lower edges of the front end. In the typical way of EVs, there's no grille, but the space behind the clean front is an unseen nerve centre for a lot of safety and traffic monitoring technology. There's an intriguing element to the the bonnet front, which incorporates an air management spoiler design that Polestar engineers say goes a long way to helping achieve a very low drag at high speeds, among other things improving the range efficiency.
There's a very stylish side silhouette with a kick-up line at the rear quarter that combines with a roofline drop which eliminates any SUV boxiness, ending in an integrated spoiler and almost what we used to call a Kammback straight down rear end. As for the style of the rear itself, it's not going to be mistaken for anything else on the road — a very clean tailgate finish and an LED stripe-light straight across under the window glass.
The interior both feels and is very roomy, with an airy overhead from the full length glass roof. The style of the dashboard and door trim details are of the slightly restrained but highly impressive finish which tech-minded people in this price bracket pay attention to. There's a distinct emphasis on freedom of clutter both in styling and controls. The driver's information screen is small compared to systems used in the main competitor models, but the centre infotainment screen, also used to manage the climate control, is quite massive. A style feature is the chromed speaker sticking out of the top of the dashboard that is the only visible one of a large number that likely will offer full concert hall sound as the car travels in electrical quietness down the motorway. Some of those speakers are in the head-restraints, with a feature that if the driver gets a phone call, he or she are the only ones who will hear it, while the music carries on for the others in the car. With truly lots of room in the back, those there will enjoy the performance in the most comfortable environment.
On performance, the Polestar 3 will come with two motors and a long-range battery offering a rated range of 610km. The 0-100km/h is claimed at a tidy five seconds, and there's a Performance Pack option that trims that down to 4.7s.
The target customers are those who might go for the Porsche Taycan or its cousin Audi e-tron GT, or the upper end BMW Xs including the iX electric. So far there has just been a static reveal here, but I'll be driving it in the new year, and I'm already impressed enough to be very much looking forward to that.
PRICE: From €99,900. WHAT I LIKE: If it goes as well as it looks, Polestar 3 promises to be a stunner.
