Polestar 3 adding a rear-wheel-drive trim later this 12 months

Polestar, recently divorced from the Volvo mothership, is working through some in-house teething issues similtaneously it navigates a brand new EV landscape with a small and not-exactly-inexpensive model range. Due to price cuts announced in March, the 2025 Polestar 3 Long Range Dual Motor with Pilot Pack will start at $74,800 after the $1,400 destination charge. That gets buyers an all-wheel-drive crossover making 489 horsepower and 620 pound-feet of torque, in a position to go an estimated 315 miles on a charge. The Pilot Pack adds Pilot Assist, Park Assist Pilot, Lane Change Assist and a head-up display. Australia’s Drive reports that in a recent media launch, the automaker’s global head of communications said a rear-wheel-drive 3 is on the way in which later this 12 months for global markets.  

Naturally, company reps would not say much about what’s coming, so details can have to attend “a number of months from now when the time involves launch.” The tech specs we have been entrusted with for now specify the identical rear motor as within the Long Range Dual Motor trim, said e-motor making 241 hp. Polestar’s also sticking with the 111-kWh battery pack within the dual-motor cars.

That ought to provide a pleasant bump in range over the version with two motors, but we’ll have to see pricing before an assessment. Although the three is just a little larger than a Tesla Model Y, the brand’s luxury pricing puts it in a middle ground between Ford and Tesla competition below, and BMW and Mercedes competition above. The three’s latest, lower pricing is $100 below that of an entry-level Rivian R1S, the Rivian a bigger, three-row SUV.

So it seems unlikely the Polestar 3 RWD will get near the MSRP of something just like the Ford Mustang Mach-E that starts at about $50,000 in Premium trim with the prolonged range battery good for an estimated 320 miles, or the Tesla Model Y that starts at about $46,000 in Long Range RWD trim and gets an estimated 320 miles of range — each of those prices before any potential tax credits. That Rivian can get the credit as well.

There may very well be excellent news on that front for Polestar, though. The initial cars to achieve dealer lots sometime this quarter are assembled in Chengdu, China, meaning buyers who wish to purchase cannot claim the $7,500 federal tax credit. The one strategy to claim the credit is to lease the three. The automaker says it plans on bringing production of the three to the U.S. “in the midst of 2024.” We have read that early production tests on the Ridgeville, South Carolina, facility have been accomplished, so the timeline could hold, and anyone willing to attend a number of months to buy the Polestar could get some MSRP relief.