Polestar 3 - long-term review

Did you know that there was a full-blooded racing circuit in Gothenburg, in an area of the city’s docklands called Frihamnspiren? Thed Björk won a round of the Swedish Touring Car Championship there when the track first opened, back in 2008. A few years after that I hammered a Volvo S60 ‘Polestar Engineered’ round the place, and very good it was too. That was when Polestar was the Volvo equivalent of AMG or M. The Scandinavians aren’t exclusively about hygge and cosy-knit well-being.

Now, of course, Polestar is a well-established independent entity, though part of the Geely mega-corps that also owns Lotus, Volvo and various other brands including Zeekr and Lynk & Co. It encountered some financial and HR headwinds last year, including a precipitous share price plunge and the replacement of original CEO Thomas Ingenlath. The previously pristeen optics took a hit.

New boss Michael Lohscheller is a numbers dude, and he’s seeking sales uplift. Polestar sold 44,851 cars last year, a 15 per cent decline compared to 2023, but retail sales are up by 76 per cent in Q1 of this year, bolstered by the arrival of the 3 and 4.

Polestar, as per the original vision, is an electric premium brand which puts performance and design at its core. My top two attributes in any car. Like the BMW iX and the misunderstood Jaguar I-Pace, the 3 breaks the conventions associated with the large SUV format, more successfully than either of those. Ingenlath and Max Missoni – Polestar’s former design boss, now ensconced in a senior position at BMW – are two of the industry’s top creative talents and the 3 is proof of their unerring eye for form, stance and detailing. The chunky nose contains an S-duct for aero purposes, the roofline is as low as any SUV-ish vehicle dares go, and the surfaces are clean without being clinical. The interior is similarly stark but we’ll get into that in more detail in a later report.

TG’s car is well-appointed to say the least. It’s the Long Range Dual Motor with the Performance Pack, so it’s good for 510bhp and a resounding 671lb ft. These would have been top tier supercar numbers not so long ago, and are still punchy enough to get your attention. The extra grunt hurts the range a bit, reducing it to 348 miles (WLTP) from 390. Real world, we’re looking at around 300, especially as the weather warms up.

Then there are the options. The interior is finished in Nappa leather, with black ash deco on the dash. This is responsibly sourced, meets the ‘five freedoms’ test of animal welfare, and costs £5,000. I could live without the £2,300 Pilot Pack that adds various bits of ADAS. But the Plus Pack is a no-brainer for a music obsessed audiophile like me, given that it brings with it the Bowers & Wilkins upgrade. This is a 1,610 watt, 25 speaker powerhouse, with front headrest speakers, Dolby Atmos 3D surround sound, and soon an OTA update that’ll add the spectacular Abbey Road sound stage. More on that soon.

The Plus Pack also includes active noise cancellation, acoustic glass and heated seats. Metallic paint, HD LED headlights and 22in polished black alloys round the options tally to £12,300.

A £94k car from a company that didn’t exist five years ago. Start-ups have an allure, for sure, and so far the 3 is immaculate. I wonder what obstacles await.