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5-seat, two-row luxurious electrical SUV
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0-60 mph, 4.8 seconds (base); 4.5 seconds (Efficiency Pack)
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High pace: 130 mph
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Vary: 315 miles (base); 279 miles (Efficiency Pack)
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Launch Version prices at the least $80,300; might qualify for Federal tax incentives
The Polestar 3 has 5 seats, an electrical powertrain, and regardless of a stunning Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid coupe and Polestar 2 electrical sedan, a badge that’s all however unknown to U.S. drivers.
Even the Spaniards who eye me with rightful suspicion as I streak north from Madrid wish to know what that is, and for good cause. The pickaxe emblem doesn’t say a lot concerning the automobile’s nation of origin—and nearly nothing about it says “electrical automobile.”
However, boy, is the Polestar 3 ever electrical, in all types of how.
It’s a superb effort on behalf of the startup EV automaker that’s primarily based in China, with engineers outposted in Sweden. With its foot down firmly on the facet of acceleration, grip, and a stunning subdued inside, the 2025 Polestar 3 feels very a lot akin to a clarified Volvo SUV. That is smart, because it’s associated to the upcoming EX90.
Polestar pitches the three as competitors for the Tesla Mannequin Y and the Porsche Cayenne, however with its masterful highway manners and hotwired pace, it’s extra a rival for a scorching political take of the second. It’s the automobile I’d put an electric-car denier in to get them to alter their minds.
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3: Pioneering “Fuselodge”
Partly that’s as a result of it does the whole lot effectively—particularly, in model. Its aero-keen exterior mates to a cabin that would come from the pages of the Swedish version of Dwell. Name it “Fuselodge,” and don’t neglect my royalty verify.
Take an SUV physique, taper the ends and the physique sides, and hone down all the small print that get in the way in which of clean airflow, and that’s the place the Polestar 3 begins. With all its seams Frenched, door handles made flush, and spiked LED headlights faired in easily, it presents a clear path for air to circulation previous. A placing wing marks this mission—and it sits on the SUV’s nostril, the place its three nostrils divide and conquer the slipstream, just under its LED-lit emblem.
It’s extra tradcore on the rear, the place the tall tailgate and muscular haunches get aero blades and spats to maintain that air hustling round and away in neat, laminar streams. The upkick on the rear roof pillar brings to thoughts that different Swedish model (not IKEA), however the rear wing’s all Polestar, sitting atop a gunslit slice of glass throughout the rear finish, which itself rests on a bar of LED taillights.
The cockpit makes latest Volvo interiors look Rococo by comparability. A single line crosses the sprint like an equator, with a soft-trimmed sprint cap above and slim vents behind, on a pedestal of black ash or aluminum trim. The driving force faces a low-set 9.0-inch digital gauge cluster, whereas a 14.5-inch tablet-style touchscreen sticks to the middle of the sprint as if on a MagSafe adapter.
Polestar gives a knob on the large heart console for some ancillary features, and buries the remainder of the controls in on-screen menus rendered in a skinny, pale font. That’s annoying on setup: the mirrors should be positioned via a mix of touchscreen swiping and steering-wheel fussing that lack precision and ease of use, at the same time as distraction will get restricted and targeted on these crisp shows.
Each different floor will get muted as if it have been laptop wallpaper. The Polestar 3 thus teeters between sparse and starved of element; satisfying supplies and colour selections, just like the gold seatbelts on the Efficiency Pack automobile, maintain it on the precise facet of that fulcrum.
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
Polestar 3: An area ship
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General size: 192.9 inches
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Wheelbase: 117.5 inches
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Cargo house: 1.1 cubic toes (entrance), 17.1 cubic toes (rear), 49.8 cubic toes (behind entrance seats)
Match and end elevate the inside into the chic, however the electric-car fundamentals give it the house to outpace gas-powered rivals. A 311-mile sprint via herds of cyclists towards Segovia sorted out my impressions of the Polestar 3’s consolation and utility.
It could be troublesome to call a car with higher entrance seats amongst its aggressive set. The eight-way power-adjusting entrance seats put on artificial leather-based in base spec, however both nappa leather-based or wool might be discovered throughout the lineup. Within the two leather-clad fashions I drove, the three’s cinching facet bolsters, tilting backside cushion, and increasing lumbar padding let me fine-tune a driving place that left an excellent view of the highway forward, a transparent have a look at the digital shows, ample headroom and kneeroom—and sufficient house to take a seat behind myself in row two.
At 6 toes tall, give or take, that’s an accomplishment rendered even higher by the Polestar 3’s flat flooring and large door cuts. The rear seatback reclines for swell consolation, and prime editions have napworthy nappa headrest pillows. The 60:40 break up seatbacks fold down to permit the Polestar 3 to hold a 5-foot ladder residence, whereas a charging cable tucks away beneath the hood. It does all of this with the solidity of a $100,000 automobile, which it isn’t, from the gentle thunk of the doorways closing to the hushed hustle of its electrical motors exhausting at work. Going electrical means you by no means have to fret about loud exhaust noise and what that may say about you.
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
How briskly is the Polestar 3?
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0-60 mph: 4.8 seconds; Efficiency Pack, 4.5 seconds
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High pace: 130 mph
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Vary: 315 miles; Efficiency Pack, 279 miles
You have been ready to know the way it performs? Brilliantly. Threading the needle between batches of mountain bikes and pace cameras, the Polestar 3 proved swift and poised, although extra direct management of its driving habits could be a welcome improve.
The three places a 180-kw motor on the entrance and one other on the rear, and powers them with a 111-kwh battery pack (107 kwh usable power). In standard-issue 3 SUVs, the mixture pours out 489 hp and 620 lb-ft of torque good for a 0-60 mph time of 4.8 seconds, Polestar says. Go for the $6,000 Efficiency Pack and output rises to 517 hp and 671 lb-ft, whereas the 0-60 mph time drops by 0.3 second, to 4.5 seconds. High pace, both means, will get restricted at 130 mph.
Silent and speedy, the Polestar 3 can decouple the rear electrical motor for higher effectivity. Because it stands, it’d ship 315 miles of EPA vary (or 279 miles in Efficiency Pack trim) when it attains remaining, official scores quickly. That hits a candy spot for drivers who don’t wish to quit the scorching acceleration of, say, a Porsche Cayenne or the utility of a machine that may drive all week on a single tank, whether or not it’s crammed with gasoline or electrons.
Although it weighs as a lot as 5,886 kilos in its portliest configuration, the Polestar 3 surges and hustles urgently, however with none brittle trip motions or wonky steering interjections. Agility comes baked into its suspension design, with dual-chamber air springs and adaptive dampers that take up all its heft with out throwing unfiltered pace bumps and potholes instantly into the physique construction. The three doles out little in the way in which of extraneous steering weight, however lasers in on path adjustments with out going overboard on overzealous turn-in (like a Stelvio Quadrifolgio, for instance). Polestar credit the torque-vectoring, twin-clutch rear axle with efficient and lower-effort energy distribution than a 3-motor design may need induced.
Choose one-pedal mode via a couple of faucets on the pill, and the Polestar 3 adopts a extra informal regenerative braking really feel than I’d like. However it backs that up with 15.8-inch vented discs and at the least 20-inch wheels and tires. Decide into the Efficiency Pack and the brakes upconvert to 4-piston Brembo calipers painted gold, the tires to 22-inch Pirelli P Zeros.
Slipping via the mountain passes to Segovia and again, the base-spec 3 felt relaxed effectively past the standard family-SUV cornering limits, although it rode on EV-specific treads. It paid off to flick via its screen-accessible drive modes, which might toggle between efficiency energy supply and battery preservation, in addition to steering and suspension responsiveness. Even after I chosen agency springs and steering really feel, nothing intruded on the SUV’s balanced strategy to trip and dealing with. However since they’re buried, these modes turn into a set-and-forget prospect—and nobody needs the identical mode when these snakelike routes flip into the highways that drill again towards central Madrid. That’s the place the three’s adaptive cruise management with restricted hands-free help took over for a couple of dozen miles, although I used to be unable to actuate its computerized lane-change operate on the prototype I drove.
Left on the desk: a take a look at of the three’s Off-road mode, which lifts the air springs nearly two inches above the usual 8.3 inches of floor clearance, or the self-leveling help that offsets a possible towing capability of three,500 kilos.
2025 Polestar 3 Efficiency Pack, take a look at drive, Madrid
What’s the 2025 Polestar 3 value?
It’s a high-end machine, with out being ludicrously costly. Launch Version Polestar 3 SUVs price $80,300, together with a $1,400 vacation spot charge—decrease than initially anticipated, as Polestar needs this one to be eligible for a $7,500 federal EV tax credit score (although the earliest batch will probably be assembled in China).
These early Launch Editions include all the usual know-how we count on on this set: computerized emergency braking and adaptive cruise management, a surround-view digicam system, 20-inch wheels, artificial leather-based trim, and energy options. Additionally they carry what is going to turn into the Plus Pack and Pilot Pack on future 2025 model-year automobiles—options starting from the air suspension and head-up show to a 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system.
A separate Efficiency Pack has 22-inch wheels wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires, gold seat belts, and gold-painted brake calipers. A Pilot Pack with lidar provides extra sensors to spice up future hands-free driver help when it turns into accessible via OTA updates.
A 4-year/50,000-mile guarantee pairs with a 3-year/30,000-mile complimentary service plan.
Down the highway—philosophically, to not the center of Madrid the place I valeted the automobile and the place gawkers continued to interrogate its origins—a base Polestar 3 will carry a value of $74,300. When absolutely stocked with the Plus, Efficiency, and Pilot Pack with lidar, that value will surge to at the least $91,300.
There’s extra on the way in which. We’ll let you know all concerning the Polestar 4 sedan on the finish of the month. Then, a Polestar 5 and 6 will emerge, on a brand new platform developed in-house and assembled within the firm’s personal manufacturing unit. A Polestar 7 mannequin will in the future change the Polestar 2. A renaming train could be a great addition past that.
The names will fall in line, in the future. Polestar’s rising in a jagged means. As long as vehicles as well-executed as the three lead the cost, that thriller emblem on the entrance wing gained’t be a thriller for lengthy.
Polestar paid for journey bills to Spain in order that we might convey you this take a look at drive overview.
