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By Jonathan Crouch

The Polestar 3 takes its brand confidently into the luxury SUV segment. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 55

Polestar is evolving. And proof of that comes with the Polestar 3. It's a large SUV, the company's first, and of course is fully electric, with a sporty vibe that pitches it directly against rivals like BMW's iX and Jaguar's I-PACE. The brand sees it as 'the luxury SUV for the electric age'. Maybe so.

Backgroundword count: 125

It's been astonishing just how quickly the Polestar brand has grown, effectively on the back of just one model, the Polestar 2. Particularly as that car wasn't even (overtly anyway) part of the SUV genre that's most quickly driving sales in the market at present. The Polestar 3 very much is, this high-end large luxury EV evolving the company's design identity and, according to the marque's CEO Thomas Ingenlath, here to bring the 'sport' back to this class of SUV. It sits on much more substantial underpinnings than the Polestar 2, using a freshly developed SPA2 platform also designed to underpin future models. And is built in China and (for Europe) at Volvo's US factory in Ridgeville, South Carolina to sell in thirty global markets.

Driving Experienceword count: 209

'This is not a car to drive to the kindergarten', says Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, which seems ironic since that's exactly what an awful lot of Polestar 3s will be used for. The point he's trying to make is that this should be considered amongst more engaging large crossover EVs; think more BMW iX and Jaguar I-PACE than Mercedes EQC or Audi e-tron. The power outputs are tuned to fit with this emphasis on handling engagement. There's a dual motor AWD set-up of course and in the base 'Long Range' version, that produces 489hp and 840Nm of torque, allowing 62mph to be dispatched in 5.0s on the way to 130mph. The 'Performance' version has a 517hp output (with 910Nm of torque) and trims the sprint time to 4.7s. Both variants use the same 111kWh (107kWh usable) battery, delivering a range of 379 miles for the 'Long Range' and 348 miles for the 'Performance' model. The 'Performance' version should feel sharper through the turns, sitting 13mm lower than the standard car, with a shorter, stiffer suspension set-up. Whatever your choice though, the brand claims the car will be 'fun to drive': Chief Engineer Joakim Rydholm asserts that 'the 3 will breathe and flow a bit more than the Polestar 2'.

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