POLESTAR 3 LONG RANGE DUAL MOTOR
There’s that saying where you wait ages for a bus and then two show up at once – terrible cliche, but that’s what’s happening at Polestar. It feels like decades since the Polestar 2 was launched, centuries since that nifty plug-in hybrid sports car (the 1, of course). Now it’s the turn of the 3. Only with this particular bus it was still hiding round the corner short of the bus stop and we got to have a quick go in Sweden before everyone else. Still in prototype form ahead of final sign-off (if there’s anything we don’t like they can pretend they’re working on it) but it’s basically there. Nice, eh?
A bus won’t drift through the simulated country lanes of Volvo’s Hällered proving ground, but then neither should a sizeable electric SUV. Polestar’s man in charge of vehicle dynamics Roger Wallgren flings the thing about the place with abandon, and we’re all delighted to follow suit. Likewise the way the car hops about the off-road route, soaking up ruts and bumps and 60° slopes. Your new Polestar 3 will quite happily drive down a flight of stairs if you’re feeling lazy. Useful to know.
It’s definitely an SUV, this, but trying hard to disguise it with design and things. It’s got estate vibes, with a long, low look to it that ends in a sleek rear hatch, but it’s still high riding. It’s also very pared back and minimalist when you compare it with some of the efforts in the premium end of the market that like to throw chintz at a car and see what sticks.
The design is neat, the size of the car well judged and effectively disguised. The aero tricks are fun at the front and rear (especially that nose wing), and the height of the rear hatch is lower than you expect, the car tapering down coupe-style. The 3 shares all its underbits with the new Volvo EX90, but it’s 50mm shorter, 162mm lower and 111mm wider than the upright range topping SUV from across the other side of Gothenburg.
Polestar is especially keen to point out the many ways in which it isn’t, in fact, Volvo. There’s all this fancy extra sustainable stuff in the interior to hammer home the eco message. You can also get real leather – the firm couldn’t find a decent replacement with a lower carbon hoofprint, so you get well kept cattle with names and a friendly disposition. (The free range elephant in the room of course is why anyone who’s interested in sustainability would want a 2.6-tonne SUV, but we applaud the effort.) The 14.5in portrait infotainment has been reworked by a trendy Spanis
