Polestar 3 shows off the art of engineering
Car buyers spending in the region of €100,000 are used to the finer things in life, which is exactly what the new Polestar Space in Dublin is all about.
‘Space’ may be a grandiose word for showroom, but walk through the doors of the purpose-built facility in Sandyford and you’ll not begrudge the Swedish brand its marketing language, as it is indeed a beautiful, well-thought-out space.
It’s modern, lit by high-tech lighting and cool but not austere. There are pops of yellow and gold dotted around to catch the eye too.
That’s exactly what the backlit art does and it may take you a moment to realise you’re looking at some obscure component usually found deep inside a Polestar car.
This is engineering art at its best.
Eventually you’ll remember you came to buy a car. Look around and you’ll see Polestar’s first EV — the Polestar 2 — and its coupé crossover, the Polestar 4, but topping the lineup is the Polestar 3 featured here.
Pictures can’t quite convey the size of the Polestar 3. It’s so well proportioned that it looks smaller on a printed page or smartphone screen than it is in reality.
At nearly five metres long, it’s about the same length as the Range Rover Sport, for example, but the Polestar’s roofline is significantly lower, giving it a rakish appearance.
Look closer and you’ll spot that Polestar’s engineering art extends to its cars, as it makes styling features of its myriad safety sensors up front and the complex aerodynamic shape of the body panels.
These details may be functional, but it’s also a striking and attractive car.
Only when you open the doors do you really appreciate the size of the Polestar 3, as it has buckets of room in all five seats.
Hop into the capacious rear and you’ll assume the chairs ahead have been adjusted to the front of their runners.
But when you take your place behind the wheel, you’ll find that’s not the case at all — it’s just massive inside.
The cabin design itself is clean and uncluttered, as is the Scandi-chic way, punctuated by a few unique touches such as the technical-looking Bowers & Wilkins speaker in the middle of the dashboard.
A large upright touchscreen dominates proceedings, and while we’d prefer a few more buttons to allow quick tweaking of the climate control on the move, the screen’s graphics and responsiveness are suitably sharp.
It’ll take a moment to work out how to adjust the door mirrors and steering wheel position using the touchscreen and the buttons on the wheel, but an owner is likely to only do that once anyway.
A high-tech parking camera and sensor system almost makes the mirrors and windows superfluous to requirements in any case.
Just as importantly, the seats are fabulous to look at and sit in, with plenty of adjustment in the seat and wheel to allow those of all shapes and sizes to get comfortable.
There may be a bit of a dilemma for buyers when it comes to choosing the upholstery for their Polestar 3. Traditionally, leather has been seen as the default option for high-end cars of luxurious or sporting persuasion.
The Polestar 3 is undoubtedly both of those things, yet it’s a car designed for modern society where many are questioning our reliance on animal hide for such things.
Hence, the default upholstery is instead a synthetic creation.
There are several options and colours to choose from and all are tactile — as are the cabin surfaces, incidentally.
Polestar’s corporate ethos suggests it would like buyers to consider the synthetic alternative, but it does so lightly as gorgeous nappa leather is also available — for a price.
On the subject of cost, Polestar introduced Business Editions across its lineup this year, so the entry-level Polestar 3 is now €82,290.
That shares its single, rearmounted electric motor with the car tested here, putting a modest 299hp to the rear wheels.
It’s sufficiently powerful rather than breathtakingly so, but this car feels special to drive regardless of how fast you are travelling.
Polestar 3 interior
If you really want more performance, or the traction of all-wheel drive, there are other options in the lineup such as the range-topping Performance Plus variant with up to 517hp.
No matter which model you choose, the agility of the chassis and the direct steering allow the Polestar 3 to shrink around the driver and long journeys are something to relish.
Indeed, the big battery allows for an official range of just over 700km, and the car can be charged at up to 250kW on suitably fast public chargers, so you’ll need more downtime than the car ever will. Polestar has just the place for that…
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