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The Polestar 3 is an impressive-looking crossover SUV, offering lots of performance, all-wheel drive, a long driving range, and a spacious interior.
The Polestar 2 has been around since 2020 but it’s been the brand’s only product on sale in the UK since then. Now, four years later, we have the Polestar 3, which the company says is an “SUV that drives like a sports car”. So does it?
The Polestar 3 is big (measuring 4,900mm in length). It’s a 5-seat E-segment electric SUV, which means that its competitors include the BMW iX and Audi Q8 e-tron. There are also similarities between the Polestar 3 and the Lotus Eletre in terms of size and driving experience. Both Polestar and Lotus are owned by Chinese company Geely, but the Polestar 3 and the Lotus Eletre aren’t based on the same platform; the Polestar 3 is the first vehicle to use the all-new SPA2 platform, which is more related to the Volvo EX90, whereas the Lotus Eletre is based on the Electric Premium Architecture (EPA).
The size of the Polestar 3 means lots of space inside, most notably with a huge amount of rear legroom. There’s also a 484-litre boot, and a 32-litre front storage compartment under the bonnet (a ‘frunk’).
Like the Polestar 2, the 3’s interior is minimalistic, with virtually all controls on a centre touchscreen; the design and quality feels like a step up from the 2.
Visually, the Polestar 3 is an impressive-looking machine. It doesn’t have the boxy rear of a traditional SUV, which makes it more of a crossover in our eyes. Combining the body shape with the huge (and attractive) 22-inch wheels of our test car makes it look like a concept car.
Look closely and you’ll see an air duct, or ‘aero wing’, at the front of the bonnet, and another one at the back of the roof. The front aero wing attaches air to the bonnet, increasing aerodynamic efficiency and extending range. The rear aero wing increases downforce and reduces turbulence, aiding handling and energy efficiency.
The Polestar 3 has a large 111 kWh lithium-ion battery, with 107 kWh of usable capacity, and our test car, the Long range Dual motor with Performance pack, had a whopping 510 bhp of power and 910 Nm of torque. The Launch Edition model without the Performance pack has 483 bhp and 840 Nm of torque – still impressive figures. Thankfully there’s all-wheel drive to transmit all that power and torque to the road.
The Polestar 3 Long range Dual motor has a towing capacity of 2,200 kg.
We’ve already established that the Polestar 3 is big, and it’s also heavy, weighing 2,584 kg. So you need to assess the car’s driving experience against those figures. In other words the laws of physics mean that this is never going to be an agile car, and if you accept that, then you can appreciate how well the car drives for its size. On twisting country roads, the Polestar 3’s handling is enjoyable, with much better body control than should be the case.
We frequently say that virtually all electric cars are refined and quiet, but the Polestar 3 is very quiet – something that’s no doubt helped by acoustic laminated glass in the side windows, and the flush side profile, which creates a completely flat surface that Polestar says “helps keep the airflow attached to the body”, reducing turbulence and wind noise.
Our test car had massive 22-inch wheels, and relatively low profile tyres, so the expectation was that the ride quality would be poor. However the Polestar 3 has active air suspension, using multiple sensors to detect car, road, and driver input 500 times a second, and the result is comfortable primary ride quality, and good secondary ride quality – although those wheels and tyres can’t fully protect you from the impacts of the largest potholes.
The active air suspension has settings of standard, nimble, and firm, as well as loading mode, and automatic ride height adjustment to optimise aerodynamics, which can provide as much as 250mm of ground clearance for off-road use. In fact Polestar says that the 3 has “true off-roading capability”, which may be true of the car, but isn’t the case if fitted with road tyres, as per our test car. The same should apply to snow and ice – the conditions that the car was tested in. However it actually managed to cope with the snow and ice that was present during its week on test amazingly well bearing in mind that it was fitted with Pirelli P-Zero performance road tyres with minimal tread pattern.
The Polestar 3’s capability on slippery surfaces is likely to be helped by its torque vectoring, which controls how much power the electric motors send to each individual wheel more precisely than traditional mechanical systems, the aim being to assist grip levels.
Like the Polestar 2, the Polestar 3’s interior has virtually all controls on a portrait-format centre touchscreen, including driving controls (so let’s hope that the touchscreen doesn’t stop working…). There are no driving modes, but there are a number of individual settings, perhaps the most notable being Power Delivery – with options of Range or Performance. There’s also the option to switch ESC (electronic stability control) on or off (Sport Mode). Suspension settings are Standard, Nimble and Firm, and Steering Feel is Light, Standard or Firm. There are no steering wheel-mounted paddles to adjust the level of brake regeneration, but there’s a setting on the Drive screen for One Pedal Drive, which can be Off, Low or Standard. Creep can also be On or Off, and you can adjust the suspension height. Other screens include one for assistance systems, which includes an option for switching off the lane departure warning system.
The above gives a feel for the amount of information on the touchscreen. The map takes up most of the space on the screen, and the mapping quality is highly impressive – a result of all the computer power in the car that Polestar talks about so much – although the mapping is perhaps too detailed for satnav. At the bottom of the screen there are some shortcut buttons, including for climate controls.
There’s also a display in front of the driver, which can include a map. There’s actually one physical control in the car, a dial on the centre console between the two front seats, which is for media volume, and play/pause.
As per Tesla, there are no physical controls to adjust the position of the steering wheel or the door mirrors – this has to be done by a combination of using the touchscreen and buttons on the steering wheel (the four buttons on each of the left and right steering wheel spokes have no markings to tell you what they’re for). The steering wheel doesn’t come out very far, and it doesn’t go particularly low. Unlike the latest Tesla Model 3, the Polestar 3 still retains a physical gear selector (a stalk on the right-hand side of the steering column).
The Polestar 3 Long range Dual motor with Performance pack has an official WLTP combined electric driving range of 348 miles. Without the Performance pack, the range is 390 miles – although other Polestar 3 models are capable of a range of up to 438 miles. All that sounds impressive, but what wasn’t impressive was the real-world driving range. The Polestar 3 was on test not only in winter, but in snow and ice, which we assume had an impact on the real-world driving range – which averaged at 230 miles. The standard heat pump should have resulted in a longer range.
The energy consumption for the Long range Dual motor model is 31.8 – 35.0 miles/kWh, or 35.5 – 37.0 miles/kWh with Performance pack.
The Polestar 3 features ultra-rapid DC charging of up to 250 kW, which should result in a 10% to 80% charge time of 30 minutes. The on-board 11 kW AC charger should enable a 0% to 100% charge in 8 hours.
The Polestar 3 is available from £69,900. The Polestar 3 Long range Dual motor with Performance pack, as tested, is priced at £81,500 – which included equipment such as Pilot Pack, Plus Pack, Bio-attributed MicroTech charcoal with repurposed aluminium, 22-inch alloy wheels with Pirelli P-Zero tyres, and a studio-quality Bowers & Wilkins audio system integrating Dolby Atmos and active road noise cancellation. It can’t be described as an affordable EV.
The Polestar 3 has concept car looks, rapid performance, all-wheel drive grip, and lots of space. It can ultra-rapid charge at up to 250 kW, and it has an impressive official electric range, although we weren’t able to come close to matching this – we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and put the much lower real-world range down to the freezing winter temperatures during the week of our test. So does the car drive like a sports car? The driving experience is certainly enjoyable, but we think it’s pushing it a bit to expect a 5-metre long, 2.5 tonne crossover SUV to drive like a sports car. There’s also the issue of the price – it can hardly be described as an affordable EV. The Polestar 3 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 9 out of 10.
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