Polestar 3 500kW 106kWh Performance Prime 5dr Auto

Ten Second Review

The Polestar 3 is at its most potent in this top Performance form. The dual motor powertrain puts out a frantic 680hp and has been vastly improved in this latest 800V form.

Background

As with Tesla, 'Performance' is the badge that Sino-Swedish maker Polestar applies to its most potent models. And in the case of the brand's Polestar 3, it means that you get a very fast large luxury electric SUV indeed. Little subtle gold embellishments are the only thing that set this top model apart from the standard 'Dual motor' '3' it's based on. But the acceleration gains here are very real.

Driving Experience

So does this Polestar 3 really put the 'sport' back into this kind of SUV - as its maker suggests? In this top 'Performance' form, to some extent, yes. It's no Porsche Macan Electric Turbo but it feels a good deal more wieldy than just about anything else in this segment. And that's quite an achievement given the prodigious 2.7-tonne weight. 'This is not a car to drive to the kindergarten', says the brand. Maybe so, but that's still what quite a few owners will do with it. With this 'Performance' version, you get the air suspension system we think this car really benefits from in urban travel. Via the central touchscreen, this set-up's damping can be varied through 'Standard', 'Nimble' and 'Firm' settings, all of which allow the car, in the words of Chief engineer Joakim Rydholm, to 'breathe and flow' over faster roads. His team have further improved driveability with this updated model, revising the anti-roll bars for better cornering stability and introducing a new in-house-developed permanent magnet synchronous rear motor that allows for greater rear power bias. You shouldn't find yourself short of speed when an opportunity comes to put all of that R&D effort to the test. That new rear motor has boosted power output and as a result, this top 'Performance' model delivers 680hp and a 62mph sprint time of just 3.9s en route to 130mph. Compare to 544hp and 4.7s for the ordinary 'Dual motor' version. With this updated 800V model, EV range has improved too, though not quite as significantly as you might hope. With the twin motor variants, the original 111kWh battery has been replaced by a denser one with 106kWh offering 394 miles with the 'Dual motor' and 368 miles with this 'Performance' version. With the twin motor variants, these figures are helped by the way that the front motor now features automatic disconnect functionality when not needed. And they depend on the driver making use of the effective 'One-Pedal Drive' brake regen system. While also setting the 'Power Delivery' to 'Range', rather than its more urgent 'Performance' mode.

Design and Build

You might, like us, think that all Polestars look pretty much the same from the front, but from every other perspective, this Polestar 3 is quite different from anything else this Sino-Swedish marque has ever brought us. This 'Performance' version is visually set apart by bigger 22-inch wheels with gold calipers. At 4.9-metres in length, it's certainly big - as you'd think it would be given that this is a sporty, five-seat crossover sitting on an SPA platform originally designed for a seven-seat family SUV (the Volvo EX90). And instead of the high, boxy roof height you'd get with a car like that, this '3' has a far lower and rather racy swept-back roof line. With this sharply angled rear quarterlight window that emphasises the substantial rear haunches. It's all rather different and divisive, though the 0.29Cd drag factor is disappointingly bluff for such a fastback silhouette. Inside, where this 'Performance' version is set apart by gold seat belts, it's very Polestar-like. Which means the marque's usual thoughtfully designed but sparsely-furnished look, a minimalistic vibe that the company continues to carry off rather more convincingly than Tesla or the Chinese makers. The portrait-format central screen isn't quite as big as it is in a Polestar 4, but it still dominates the front-of-cabin experience, as does the rather over-large three-spoke wheel. There are some nice touches of quality - like the stitched fabric dashboard, on the top of which you'll get an unusual jet-engine-style silver speaker if you specify the Bowers & Wilkins audio upgrade most customers want. But there's less of a luxury feel from the shiny, piano-black-trimmed centre console that juts out towards the bulkhead, or the click action of the typical Polestar round dial that sits upon it. That large steering wheel has lots of large spoke buttons, some of which don't seem to do very much, the exception being to right spoke's bottom switch which changes the view formats of the 9-inch driver's display. In the rear, the leg room's almost limo-like, which compensates for the fact that this bench doesn't do anything useful like sliding or reclining. Headroom's fine too. But you do pay a bit for those coupe-style looks with boot capacity. It's not terrible - the powered tailgate rises to reveal a reasonable 484-litre space. And with everything folded, up to 1,411-litres of flat floor space can be freed up. In addition, there's a further 23.8-litre under-bonnet 'frunk' space beneath the bonnet - ideal for the charging leads.

Market and Model

You'll need around £92,000 for the top 'Performance' twin motor version we're trying here. But this flagship variant gets all the extras as standard, including the brand's audio system upgrade, 'Bowers & Wilkins for Polestar' (which comes with headrest speakers and active road noise cancellation). You also get a head-up display, soft-close doors, an infra-red windscreen, an acoustic lower rear window, an advanced air cleaning system, a power-operated steering column and a foldable boot floor. 'Performance' spec also includes the 'Pilot pack', which gives you a 360-degree camera and the Pilot Assist semi-autonomous drive system which uses an advanced Lidar system and offers acceleration, braking and steering support at up to 93mph, plus parking assist and Lane Change Assist. Also tick off heat for the rear seats, steering wheel and front wiper blades, plus rear privacy glass. We should brief you on the manner in which you'll need to buy or lease this car, since Polestar doesn't use conventional dealerships. The closest the brand gets to this kind of thing is what it calls 'Polestar Spaces' - basically automotive department stores in shopping centres. Currently, there are only four of those - at Westfield and Battersea in London, at The Trafford shopping Centre in Manchester and at The Touchwood shopping centre in Solihull. Plus Polestar has a Test Drive Hub in Milton Keynes. And engages in short term 'pop-up' shopping spaces at malls around the country. The primary idea though is that you should place your order online via the British section of the Polestar.com website. Then connect into the brand as and when you need to - they'll come to you when your car needs servicing, three years cover for which is included in the price.

Cost of Ownership

We gave you the EV driving range figure in our 'Driving' section - up to 368 miles for this 'Performance' variant (19 miles more than the original 111kWh model). As with all EVs - and particularly big SUV ones - the much-trumpeted 'zero emissions' mantra is of course illusory. In this case, once you take into account the production of the electricity most commonly used to charge this car, this '3' is producing CO2 at a rate of just over 40g/km. The big change for this updated Polestar 3 model lies with the introduction of a much more advanced 800 Volt electrical architecture. This upgrade enables significantly faster DC charging with a peak rate of up to 350kW for the twin motor cars. That's 100kW faster than before. And it means that in the 'Dual motor' or 'Performance' variants, the 10-80% battery DC charge benchmark can take as little as 22 minutes, which is more than 25% (or 8 minutes) faster than before. The new architecture also brings enhanced efficiency, up to 6% according to the WLTP cycle, and supports the integration of new lithium-ion batteries from supplier CATL. As for AC charging at home, well with a single-phase 7.4kW wallbox, you'll need around 17 hours for a full charge of the bigger 106kWh battery; you can improve that to around 11 hours if your wallbox uses an 11kW twin-phase supply. As before, this Polestar uses a multi-high-speed charging system that allows switching between 800 volt and 400 volt outputs.

Summary

If you're going to get a Polestar 3 in twin motor form, we can see why you might be tempted to go the whole hog and get this top Performance version Other rivals better this car on EV range, but few feel faster - or sharper to drive. In this 800V form, this car charges more rapidly too. It's quite a Performance.