Polestar 5 review

As we mentioned earlier in this review, the Polestar 5 is technically a five-seater, but only four of those are full-size chairs. Excellent chairs though, with Recaro supplying the supportive, low-mounted fronts and then Polestar replicating those for the rear.

All four can be heated, ventilated and massaging, and rear seat passengers can stick their feet into a ‘foot garage’ – essentially a cut-out in the battery pack that lowers the floor for a more natural seating position.

The armrest in between the two rear seats usually allows occupants to control the climate and seat functions, but it can also be lifted to act as the fifth spot. It does take a while to get used to the lack of a rear window while sitting in the back of the 5, but the massive panoramic roof helps to keep it feeling bright and airy, and the cabin is full of premium materials including black ash, aluminium and MicroSuede.

A vegan leather alternative that Polestar calls MicroTech is standard fit on the seats, but you can pay £5,300 to upgrade to Bridge of Weir leather. We’d have the latter in the light ‘Zinc’ colour. It’s also worth noting that Dual Motor cars get black seatbelts with a Swedish gold stripe, while Performance versions are all gold.

How are all the screens?

We’ll start with the smallest one – the digital rear-view mirror. It’s probably the best camera display we’ve seen so far, but even so it still takes your eyes a moment to adjust to a screen where a mirror would require a quick glance.

We found the central touchscreen to be a little unresponsive at times too, but its menus are at least clear and well laid out, and Polestar now provides some handy shortcuts on the home screen for the speed limit warning bongs and lane assist. In that same panel you also get shortcuts for turning the wick up on power and altering the regen. We still find it fiddly having to delve into the menus to move the side mirrors, though.

The small 9.0-inch driver display shows all of your crucial information, while the infotainment screen runs a Polestar specific Android Automotive operating system with Google built-in, so you’ve got Google Maps for navigation and a choice of apps. Like other Polestars, the steering wheel doesn’t have any dedicated, labelled controls, and the only physical button on the centre console is a volume knob for your media.

Although on that note, we implore you to spec the Bowers & Wilkins sound system. It’s standard on the Performance version or a £4,000 option on the Dual Motor, but with 21 speakers and 1,610 watts of output it can create some magical sounds.

Is it practical?

There isn’t a huge amount of storage space in the interior, which is a shame for a big GT. The centre console only gets a very shallow storage bin, and there’s no glovebox, so important documents need to be shoved behind the front seat. Bit of an oversight.

The boot is slightly smaller than a Taycan’s at 365 litres, but the rear seats do fold to allow for much more luggage space and there’s a frunk that adds an extra 62 litres of space. We’re told that's been shaped to take a carry-on bag and that it’s lined with AutoNeum’s UltraSilent material which improves NVH and saves 5kg vs the traditional plastic.