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Five-seat, two-row luxury electric SUV
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0-60 mph, 4.8 seconds (base); 4.5 seconds (Performance Pack)
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Top speed: 130 mph
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Range: 315 miles (base); 279 miles (Performance Pack)
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Launch Edition costs no less than $80,300; could qualify for Federal tax incentives
The Polestar 3 has five seats, an electrical powertrain, and despite a beautiful Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid coupe and Polestar 2 electric sedan, a badge that’s all but unknown to U.S. drivers.
Even the Spaniards who eye me with rightful suspicion as I streak north from Madrid need to know what that is, and for good reason. The pickaxe logo doesn’t say much in regards to the automotive’s country of origin—and almost nothing about it says “electric automotive.”
But, boy, is the Polestar 3 ever electric, in every kind of the way.
It’s an excellent effort on behalf of the startup EV automaker that’s based in China, with engineers outposted in Sweden. With its foot down firmly on the side of acceleration, grip, and a beautiful subdued interior, the 2025 Polestar 3 feels very much akin to a clarified Volvo SUV. That is sensible, because it’s related to the upcoming EX90.
Polestar pitches the three as competition for the Tesla Model Y and the Porsche Cayenne, but with its masterful road manners and hotwired speed, it’s more a rival for a hot political take of the moment. It’s the automotive I’d put an electric-car denier in to get them to vary their minds.
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
2025 Polestar 3: Pioneering “Fuselodge”
Partially that’s since it does all the things well—particularly, in style. Its aero-keen exterior mates to a cabin that might come from the pages of the Swedish edition of Dwell. Call it “Fuselodge,” and don’t forget my royalty check.
Take an SUV body, taper the ends and the body sides, and hone down all the main points that get in the way in which of smooth airflow, and that’s where the Polestar 3 begins. With all its seams Frenched, door handles made flush, and spiked LED headlights faired in easily, it presents a clean path for air to flow past. A striking wing marks this mission—and it sits on the SUV’s nose, where its three nostrils divide and conquer the slipstream, just under its LED-lit logo.
It’s more tradcore on the rear, where the tall tailgate and muscular haunches get aero blades and spats to maintain that air hustling around and away in neat, laminar streams. The upkick on the rear roof pillar brings to mind that other Swedish brand (not IKEA), however the rear wing’s all Polestar, sitting atop a gunslit slice of glass across the rear end, which itself rests on a bar of LED taillights.
The cockpit makes recent Volvo interiors look Rococo by comparison. A single line crosses the dash like an equator, with a soft-trimmed dash cap above and slim vents behind, on a pedestal of black ash or aluminum trim. The motive force faces a low-set 9.0-inch digital gauge cluster, while a 14.5-inch tablet-style touchscreen sticks to the middle of the dash as if on a MagSafe adapter.
Polestar provides a knob on the wide center console for some ancillary functions, and buries the remainder of the controls in on-screen menus rendered in a skinny, pale font. That’s annoying on setup: the mirrors have to be placed through a mixture of touchscreen swiping and steering-wheel fussing that lack precision and ease of use, whilst distraction gets limited and focused on those crisp displays.
Every other surface gets muted as if it were computer wallpaper. The Polestar 3 thus teeters between sparse and starved of detail; satisfying materials and color decisions, just like the gold seatbelts on the Performance Pack automotive, keep it on the fitting side of that fulcrum.
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
Polestar 3: An area ship
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Overall length: 192.9 inches
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Wheelbase: 117.5 inches
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Cargo space: 1.1 cubic feet (front), 17.1 cubic feet (rear), 49.8 cubic feet (behind front seats)
Fit and finish elevate the inside into the sublime, however the electric-car fundamentals give it the space to outpace gas-powered rivals. A 311-mile dash through herds of cyclists toward Segovia sorted out my impressions of the Polestar 3’s comfort and utility.
It could be difficult to call a vehicle with higher front seats amongst its competitive set. The eight-way power-adjusting front seats wear synthetic leather in base spec, but either nappa leather or wool might be found across the lineup. Within the two leather-clad models I drove, the three’s cinching side bolsters, tilting bottom cushion, and expanding lumbar padding let me fine-tune a driving position that left an amazing view of the road ahead, a transparent have a look at the digital displays, ample headroom and kneeroom—and enough space to take a seat behind myself in row two.
At 6 feet tall, give or take, that’s an accomplishment rendered even higher by the Polestar 3’s flat floor and wide door cuts. The rear seatback reclines for swell comfort, and top editions have napworthy nappa headrest pillows. The 60:40 split seatbacks fold right down to allow the Polestar 3 to hold a 5-foot ladder home, while a charging cable tucks away under the hood. It does all of this with the solidity of a $100,000 automotive, which it isn’t, from the soft thunk of the doors closing to the hushed hustle of its electric motors hard at work. Going electric means you never should worry about loud exhaust noise and what which may say about you.
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
How briskly is the Polestar 3?
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0-60 mph: 4.8 seconds; Performance Pack, 4.5 seconds
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Top speed: 130 mph
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Range: 315 miles; Performance Pack, 279 miles
You were waiting to understand how it performs? Brilliantly. Threading the needle between batches of mountain bikes and speed cameras, the Polestar 3 proved swift and poised, though more direct control of its driving behavior could be a welcome upgrade.
The three puts a 180-kw motor on the front and one other on the rear, and powers them with a 111-kwh battery pack (107 kwh usable energy). 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 Performance Pack and output rises to 517 hp and 671 lb-ft, while the 0-60 mph time drops by 0.3 second, to 4.5 seconds. Top speed, either way, gets limited at 130 mph.
Silent and speedy, the Polestar 3 can decouple the rear electric motor for higher efficiency. Because it stands, it’d deliver 315 miles of EPA range (or 279 miles in Performance Pack trim) when it attains final, official rankings soon. That hits a sweet spot for drivers who don’t want to provide up the scorching acceleration of, say, a Porsche Cayenne or the utility of a machine that may drive all week on a single tank, whether it’s stuffed with gas or electrons.
Though it weighs as much as 5,886 kilos in its portliest configuration, the Polestar 3 surges and hustles urgently, but with none brittle ride motions or wonky steering interjections. Agility comes baked into its suspension design, with dual-chamber air springs and adaptive dampers that absorb all its heft without throwing unfiltered speed bumps and potholes directly into the body structure. The three doles out little in the way in which of extraneous steering weight, but lasers in on direction changes without going overboard on overzealous turn-in (like a Stelvio Quadrifolgio, for instance). Polestar credits the torque-vectoring, twin-clutch rear axle with effective and lower-effort power distribution than a 3-motor design may need induced.
Select one-pedal mode through a number of taps on the tablet, and the Polestar 3 adopts a more casual regenerative braking feel than I’d like. But it surely backs that up with 15.8-inch vented discs and no less than 20-inch wheels and tires. Opt into the Performance Pack and the brakes upconvert to 4-piston Brembo calipers painted gold, the tires to 22-inch Pirelli P Zeros.
Slipping through the mountain passes to Segovia and back, the base-spec 3 felt relaxed well beyond the same old family-SUV cornering limits, though it rode on EV-specific treads. It paid off to flick through its screen-accessible drive modes, which may toggle between performance power delivery and battery preservation, in addition to steering and suspension responsiveness. Even after I chosen firm springs and steering feel, nothing intruded on the SUV’s balanced approach to ride and handling. But since they’re buried, those modes turn into a set-and-forget prospect—and nobody wants the identical mode when those snakelike routes turn into the highways that drill back toward central Madrid. That’s where the three’s adaptive cruise control with limited hands-free assistance took over for a number of dozen miles, though I used to be unable to actuate its automatic lane-change function on the prototype I drove.
Left on the table: a test of the three’s Off-road mode, which lifts the air springs almost two inches above the usual 8.3 inches of ground clearance, or the self-leveling assistance that offsets a possible towing capability of three,500 kilos.
2025 Polestar 3 Performance Pack, test drive, Madrid
What’s the 2025 Polestar 3 price?
It’s a high-end machine, without being ludicrously expensive. Launch Edition Polestar 3 SUVs cost $80,300, including a $1,400 destination fee—lower than initially expected, as Polestar wants this one to be eligible for a $7,500 federal EV tax credit (though the earliest batch might be assembled in China).
Those early Launch Editions include all the usual technology we expect on this set: automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control, a surround-view camera system, 20-inch wheels, synthetic leather trim, and power features. In addition they carry what is going to turn into the Plus Pack and Pilot Pack on future 2025 model-year vehicles—features starting from the air suspension and head-up display to a 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system.
A separate Performance Pack has 22-inch wheels wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires, gold seat belts, and gold-painted brake calipers. A Pilot Pack with lidar adds more sensors to spice up future hands-free driver assistance when it becomes available through OTA updates.
A 4-year/50,000-mile warranty pairs with a 3-year/30,000-mile complimentary service plan.
Down the road—philosophically, to not the guts of Madrid where I valeted the automotive and where gawkers continued to interrogate its origins—a base Polestar 3 will carry a price of $74,300. When fully stocked with the Plus, Performance, and Pilot Pack with lidar, that price will surge to no less than $91,300.
There’s more on the way in which. We’ll let you know all in regards to the Polestar 4 sedan at the tip of the month. Then, a Polestar 5 and 6 will emerge, on a brand new platform developed in-house and assembled in the corporate’s own factory. A Polestar 7 model will in the future replace the Polestar 2. A renaming exercise could be a great addition beyond that.
The names will fall in line, in the future. Polestar’s growing in a jagged way. As long as cars as well-executed because the 3 lead the charge, that mystery logo on the front wing won’t be a mystery for long.
Polestar paid for travel expenses to Spain in order that we could bring you this test drive review.
This Article First Appeared At www.motorauthority.com
