SANDHULT, Sweden — To get an thought of how Polestar will evolve within the coming years, look no additional than the three. Known as the model’s core, it inaugurates an strategy to design, expertise, and dealing with that can trickle right down to future fashions. It additionally takes Polestar out of the tiny pool of carmakers that don’t supply an SUV, so it should play an important position in serving to the younger Volvo off-shoot enhance its gross sales on the American market.
What took Polestar so lengthy to enter the SUV section? I requested firm CEO Thomas Ingenlath.
“Somewhere you have to start the company, and you cannot have everything at the same time. If we had just the 3, people might come up and ask me, ‘Thomas, wouldn’t it be nice to have a more affordable Polestar?’ That’s the 2. Once you have everything it’s great, but you have to build it up bit by bit.”
Polestar unveiled the three in October 2022, so we already know what the SUV seems to be like; no surprises right here and no camouflage wanted. Visually, it represents a shift away from the two, which is distinctly Volvo-like, the results of it being based mostly on a Volvo design idea that by no means made it to manufacturing. The Polestar 3, then, represents the longer term, with its design language already permeating different fashions, together with an upcoming sport sedan known as 5.
Whereas designers are tugging Polestar out of Volvo’s shadow, they’re not severing all ties.
Polestar 3 and Volvo EX90
“The 3 is uniquely Polestar, and with the 4, 5, and 6 we’re really departing from Volvo, but we also like to keep a little bit of a bridge to Volvo as a family because there is a lot to gain,” mentioned Maximilian Missoni, the pinnacle of Polestar’s design division, including that folks belief Volvo. “The connection to Volvo is a good thing; it sets Polestar apart from many other newcomers that don’t have this kind of trust.”
It’s the same story inside, the place particular styling cues (such because the wooden trim on the dashboard) and a usually minimalist strategy to design give off a definite whiff of Volvo-ness. What separates the EX90 and the three, then? How do you keep away from automotive cannibalism contemplating each EVs are constructed on the identical primary SPA2 structure, pegged in the identical value bracket, and have comparatively shut dimensions?
“We’re focused on driving dynamics, while Volvo is focused on versatility,” Missoni mentioned, including, “We share a focus on safety.”
You possibly can see this differentiation within the alternative of physique model. Whereas the EX90 – like its gas-powered counterpart, the XC90 – will probably be provided with three rows of seats, the three has solely two rows and was formed accordingly with a low, sloping roof line. As a bonus, making the three two-row-only provides rear-seat passengers loads of area.
Polestar developed its personal person interface to additional set itself aside from Volvo; it went so far as creating its personal icons for capabilities just like the heated seats and the assorted warning messages, and it designed a font known as Polestar Unica. Android-powered and displayed on a portrait-oriented 14.5-inch touchscreen, the infotainment system depends on tiles slightly than lists to convey data clearly and rapidly. That’s good pondering on Polestar’s half as a result of there’s not a lot in the way in which of bodily buttons within the 3. There’s a quantity knob, fortunately, however even easy duties like opening the glovebox require tapping the display. I’m advised the tradeoff is that homeowners could have the choice of locking the glovebox by setting a password.
At launch, consumers could have two variants to select from. The usual 3 ships with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system rated at 489 horsepower and 620 pound-feet of torque, whereas the Efficiency Pack-equipped mannequin posts figures of 517 and 671, respectively. Each drivetrains use a large, 111-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack suitable with 250-kilowatt fast-charging (in addition to 11kW house charging), and Polestar expects the EPA’s vary estimates to return in at as much as 300 and 270 miles, respectively. It’s not farfetched to imagine {that a} smaller battery pack and a two-wheel-drive powertrain might be a part of the lineup later within the manufacturing run.
My time behind the wheel of a pre-production Polestar 3 was restricted to a couple of dozen laps of a check observe nestled deep inside Volvo’s Hällered proving grounds in southwestern Sweden. This large, 50-year-old advanced options almost each sort of highway floor conceivable, together with a Los Angeles-area freeway (minus the visitors), Belgium cobblestones, and what a check driver known as a duplicate of Sweden’s worst highway. The observe I drove on regarded like the typical two-lane highway within the Swedish countryside, which means just a little twisty and just a little hilly. The type of highway you would like didn’t have a pace restrict — and on this case there wasn’t one.
The three’s steering instantly caught me unexpectedly: It’s faster and extra exact than you’d look forward to finding in an electrical, 193-inch-long household hauler that ideas the dimensions at almost 5,900 kilos in its heaviest configuration. Joakim Rydholm, the model’s head of chassis improvement, tells me that’s intentional.
“Everything starts from the steering. It’s so important when you set up a car,” he explains.
Whereas the three weighs greater than many full-size pickups, the majority of the burden lies between the axles and beneath the passenger compartment. This structure helps dealing with in two methods. First, it provides this large SUV the identical heart of gravity because the Polestar 1, which was a low-slung coupe. Second, it unlocks a 50:50 weight distribution. Engineers then added a height- and firmness-adjustable air suspension system and a dual-clutch torque vectoring differential on the rear axle to dial in dealing with that’s virtually sedan-like. You’re not going to mistake the three for a Subaru BRZ, but it surely’s not your common floaty, overgrown hatchback, both.
That is the kind of dealing with we will count on from future Polestar fashions, no matter their measurement or the section they compete in – and there are a couple of automobiles within the pipeline. Rydholm notes that he’s not making an attempt to repeat competitor A’s suspension setup or competitor B’s steering really feel.
“If you want (a rival’s) DNA, buy (the rival’s) car,” he mentioned. His job is to create Polestar’s DNA. He’s ranging from scratch, there’s no last-generation 3 to construct on, however he brings an unlimited quantity of expertise to the desk. He labored for Polestar when the agency made (and raced!) hot-rodded Volvo fashions, earlier than it morphed right into a full-fledged model. He notably helped develop the Polestar-branded variants of the C30 and the second-generation S60.
At a extra leisurely tempo, the three drives like a high-end EV. It’s fast and linear off the road, quiet and secure at freeway speeds, and cozy no matter what’s proven on the speedometer. It will possibly additionally change into front-wheel-drive, as a result of the rear motor shuts off to enhance effectivity when the facility and grip it delivers aren’t wanted. Nevertheless, as in lots of electrical automobiles, the brake pedal doesn’t really feel 100% pure. It doesn’t instantly summon the hydraulic components of the braking system: regeneration slows down the automotive till about 0.3Gs, which is when the pads start to clamp the rotors. No less than the transition is almost imperceptible and the brakes, together with Brembo-sourced four-piston entrance calipers, are highly effective.
Talking of regeneration, an icon conveniently positioned on the underside a part of the infotainment system’s touchscreen lets the motive force select certainly one of three one-pedal driving modes known as Off, Low, and Customary, respectively. Customary is powerful sufficient that you just don’t want to make use of the brake pedal in regular driving.
Will anybody off-road the three? In all probability not, however it may deal with comparatively powerful terrain. Volvo’s off-road course wasn’t a problem for it. Even {a partially} frozen 60% climb that didn’t look protected in any respect couldn’t cease it. As a passenger, I instinctively reached for the seize deal with pondering, “Oh damn, this is not going to end well.” It ended simply positive, and I didn’t discover the seize deal with as a result of it’s not there. Polestar determined they’re ineffective and unnecessarily take up area, so it shipped them off to the pantheon of automotive historical past.
It wouldn’t be truthful to supply a verdict on the three after driving a pre-series automotive on a check observe; what I drove isn’t precisely what you’ll discover in showrooms when deliveries begin in 2024, and the percentages of a future proprietor ending up on a Volvo-owned testing facility in a distant a part of Sweden are about as excessive as the percentages of seeing a 4.0-liter V8-powered model of the three. My preliminary impressions are optimistic, nevertheless. Polestar has created an electrical SUV that’s participating to drive with out compromising roominess or practicality.
On sale now, the 2024 Polestar 3 carries a base value of $85,300, together with the $1,400 vacation spot cost. That determine contains the convenience- and luxury-stuffed Plus Pack and the Pilot Pack (principally adaptive cruise management, lane-centering steering help and a head-up show) that can be a part of the record of choices later within the manufacturing run. The Efficiency Pack prices $6,000. Notice that the primary examples that can flip a wheel on our roads will come from Volvo’s manufacturing unit in Chengdu, China. Manufacturing within the five-year-old Charleston, South Carolina, facility that at the moment builds the S60 sedan is scheduled to start midway via 2024.