2025 Polestar 3 First Drive Evaluation: Aiming on the mainstream
MADRID, Spain — Polestar has catered to a distinct segment viewers since taking a seat on the carmaker desk in 2017. Issues began small: It’s been working as a one-model model for the previous couple of years. Whereas the two set a excessive bar, it’s not in a position to push the tuner-turned-manufacturer into the mainstream alone.
Backup has arrived. Unveiled in 2022, the Polestar 3 will plant the flag within the oh-so-important (and oh-so-lucrative) SUV section. It additionally blazes the trail that the subsequent additions to the vary will comply with, each when it comes to design and expertise. For a lot of, this huge EV would be the face of Polestar.
I’ve already pushed the three on a check observe in Sweden. Now it’s time to hit the open street.
Like the segment-bending Polestar 4, the three illustrates how Polestar plans to steadily distance itself from Volvo. It’s constructed on the identical modular SPA2 platform as the EX90, which might be offered alongside the XC90 for at the least a short while, however the two SUVs feel and look completely different. They’re cousins relatively than siblings. The three is marketed because the sportier of the 2, so it includes a extra swept-back silhouette, a decrease roofline and solely two rows of seats. The EX90 is boxier, taller and obtainable with a 3rd row.
The thought wasn’t to completely sever ties with Volvo. “We prefer to preserve somewhat little bit of a bridge to Volvo as a household as a result of there’s a lot to realize,” Maximilian Missoni, head of Polestar’s design division, informed me. Drivers are inclined to belief Volvo, particularly in relation to security. “The connection to Volvo is an effective factor; it units Polestar other than many different newcomers that don’t have this sort of belief.”
Up entrance, the Thor’s Hammer daytime operating lights kind a hyperlink between the 2 corporations. There’s loads of distinctive Polestar DNA, although. The three doesn’t disguise its armada of sensors; it proudly exhibits them off. The panel situated between the headlights — the place you’d probably discover a grille if the three used, say, a straight-six — options strains indicating the place of the assorted sensors that energy the digital driving aids.
In a approach, that is Polestar’s heritage. The Polestar 1, its first mannequin, ushered on this labeling system with a cool, clear panel within the trunk. It defined the aim of the large orange wires linked to the battery.
You get a stronger whiff of Volvo-ness from the driving force’s seat. The three-spoke steering wheel, the digital instrument cluster, the dashboard’s general format and the floating middle console look just like what you discover within the EX90. Polestar stresses that it went to vital lengths to distinguish its software program, nevertheless. Whereas the infotainment system stays Android-based and displayed on a 14.5-inch touchscreen, the model designed its personal consumer interface loaded with proprietary fonts and icons.
About 85% of the three’s infotainment system is shared with the 4. The largest distinction is that the three’s touchscreen is portrait-oriented whereas the 4’s is panorama. Ruben Rodriguez, the corporate’s head of UX design, informed me that’s as a result of the 4 is aimed toward youthful patrons who will respect the additional features, like a split-screen mode. In distinction, 3 patrons will favor the top-to-bottom show.
This software program depends on tiles and illustrations to obviously convey data, which is sweet contemplating the lengthy listing of features packed into the display screen. Past the standard, resembling coming into an deal with into the navigation system or altering the radio station, the touchscreen is your level of contact to open the glovebox, choose whether or not the door mirrors fold robotically or alter the steering column.
Rear-seat passengers will probably really feel the urge to ship Polestar a heartfelt “thanks” card after an extended journey. By detouring a three-row configuration, designers had the liberty to maneuver the rear bench again to carve out a beneficiant quantity of legroom. Storage capability takes successful, nevertheless: There’s 21.1 cubic toes of cargo house (together with 3.2 cubes underneath the ground) with the second-row seats left up, and 49.8 cubic toes with the rear seats folded flat. It’s not laborious to discover a rival with a much bigger trunk. Staying within the (prolonged) household, the XC60 gives extra trunk house, but it’s about eight inches shorter than the Polestar 3.
At launch, the Lengthy-Vary Twin-Motor would be the solely variant of the three obtainable. Its title is simple: Energy comes from two electrical motors (one per axle) that draw electrical energy from a 111-kilowatt-hour nickel-manganese-cobalt battery. The system’s output checks in at 489 horsepower and 620 pound-feet of torque, although the elective Efficiency Package deal bumps these figures to 517 hp and 671 lb-ft, respectively. Whereas the three isn’t mild — it weighs between 5,696 and 5,886 kilos relying on the way it’s configured — the massive quantity of energy unlocks hot-hatch-like acceleration: Polestar quotes a 4.8-second 0-60-mph time for the usual 3 and 4.5 seconds for the Efficiency mannequin.
Nevertheless, there’s no scarcity of electrical vehicles that publish the type of horsepower and torque figures that have been par for the course within the supercar section a decade in the past. And, most of them use the identical fundamental drivetrain configuration — a single-speed transmission for every motor and a heavy battery underneath the cabin — so all of them have some comparable driving traits. That is the place the three stands out from the pack.
It’s all within the rear axle: Polestar added a dual-clutch torque-vectoring differential to dial in sharper dealing with. It’s not merely a advertising gimmick. This method makes a giant distinction on a twisty street, the place the three handles like a nimbler automobile. It’s not, say, a Volkswagen GTI, but it surely’s much more partaking to drive than its weight and proportions counsel. Among the finest-driving EVs available on the market is a 192.9-inch-long SUV constructed by an organization few had heard of 10 years in the past – how’s that for beating the percentages?
A number of different components come into play, together with a low middle of gravity and a 50/50 entrance/rear weight distribution that permit the three to take a nook with out extreme physique roll. You may as well configure the steering (Gentle, Commonplace and Agency) and the adaptive air suspension (Commonplace, Nimble and Agency). Enjoying round with these profiles makes a perceptible distinction in how the three behaves. Almost each new automobile gives driving modes or profiles, however they’re typically not as nuanced as we’d like them to be.
Brakes? They’re there, and so they’re big — we’re speaking four-piston Brembo calipers up entrance — however you probably received’t use them typically. The pads solely are available contact with the rotors at 0.3g’s of braking drive. Under that, the regenerative braking system slows the three by itself. The pedal really feel is common. It’s not nice, but it surely’s not overly video game-like, both. You possibly can one-pedal-drive your approach down the street by choosing two ranges known as Low and Commonplace, respectively (you can too flip the system off).
The Eau de Volvo scent returns on the freeway, the place the three cruises in consolation and relative silence, although there’s wind noise coming from the door mirror space. The driving aids work as marketed, and the three is notably able to altering lanes by itself with a flick of the flip sign. The rear axle that orchestrates the quantity of energy assigned to every rear wheel on a twisty street goes offline for effectivity’s sake on the freeway to avoid wasting vary. Going straight at 65 mph, you don’t really feel that the rear wheels aren’t powered. I’m informed the system reengages them virtually immediately if wanted.
Polestar notes that the three’s 400-volt electrical system is able to 250-kilowatt charging, which might take the battery from 10% to 80% in half-hour. The model is engaged on quicker charging — it constructed a prototype able to charging from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes — however the expertise isn’t prepared. The three will get an EPA-estimated 315 miles of vary, although the Efficiency Pack lowers that determine to 279.
With a recent strategy to design, a pleasant inside and interesting dealing with, the three ought to permit Polestar to shed its new-kid-on-the-block standing. It’s completely different sufficient from the Volvo EX90 to face out in a crowded section, but it surely’s additionally comparable sufficient to handle issues that motorists might need about shopping for a automobile from a younger model.
On sale now, the 2025 Polestar 3 begins at $74,800, together with a $1,400 vacation spot cost. Including the Efficiency Pack will increase that determine to $80,800. Observe that the mannequin just isn’t eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit score as a result of it’s inbuilt Chengdu, China. Polestar will start constructing the three within the Volvo plant close to Charleston, South Carolina, sooner or later in 2024, so American-made vehicles may qualify. Within the meantime, the automaker factors out that patrons who lease the three can declare the complete $7,500 tax credit score.
And, cling tight if you need a less expensive 3: there’s a rear-wheel-drive mannequin due out later in 2024.
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