Polestar 4 test drive

Make and model: Polestar 4
Description: Electric coupé-SUV
Price range: £59,990 to £70,990

Polestar says: “A creative new approach to SUV coupe design.”

We say: Polestar’s fastest yet is impressive in quality and performance but its technology may prove a step too far for some.

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Introduction

The Polestar 4 launches at the same time as its Polestar 3 sister, which we’ve also just driven, and has been making headlines for months before arriving in showrooms, and all for one reason – this is a car without a rear windscreen, the driver relying instead on digital cameras to see out of the back.

While controversial, the move has allowed Polestar rather more latitude in many areas of the car’s design, particularly in the construction and shape of the body which in turn affects the interior.

The result is the Swedish performance electric brand’s fastest offering yet, which also maintains Polestar’s established reputation for upmarket quality while doing things rather differently to the norm….

What is the Polestar 4?

According to its makers, the Polestar is the brand’s coupe SUV – this may surprise those who have already viewed the equally-new sister car the Polestar 3, which is so slippery and aerodynamic that to call that car an SUV verges on flouting the Trades Descriptions Act.

The Polestar 4 takes things even further, however, by the simple expedient of dispensing with the rear glass screen and instead mounting a digital camera on the roof to provide the driver with their essential view of what’s behind.

Polestar sales staff will emphasise that this offers distinct advantages – the rear view is never blocked by the heads of people in the rear seat, in poor lighting conditions the view remains clearer, and when you put the car in reverse the camera automatically pans down to show the back bumper.

The most significant differences, however, are less obvious. By taking away a large expanse of glass at the rear, the entire roof line of the car can be redesigned into a gentle, flowing curve that looks sleeker but paradoxically frees up more space within.

First impressions

On first viewing of this car, we guarantee that SUV will not be the first phrase that enters your mind. It looks seriously purposeful, a proper designed-from-the-start coupe, not one cobbled together from an existing saloon, let alone an SUV.

The Polestar 4 is very long, at 4.8 metres. But it’s not at all tall, measuring up at just under 1.5 metres. Together with the flowing roofline, the packaging of all the mechanical bits and particularly the electric powertrain enables a lower bonnet too, plus a longer cabin which is good news for interior space. This car has serious presence.

We like: Looks like a performance car
We don’t like: Swapping mirror for camera won’t suit all

What do you get for your money?

The Polestar 4 is available in two variants – with a single motor driving the rear wheels and costing from £59,990, and with a pair of motors to produce all-wheel drive and costing from £66,990.

Polestar maintains the recent and agreeable trend of not offering a huge options list – remember the days when, if you bought an ‘executive car’, everything was a costly extra?

The long standard specification includes such niceties as a 15-inch infotainment screen with loads of Google apps built in, an eight-speaker audio system, two-zone climate control, loads of electric adjustment on the driver’s and passenger’s seats (that’s all the passenger seats…), wireless phone charging, separate USB connections for those in the back and a panoramic glass sunroof.

Said sunroof is rather essential as the lack of one would make an interior with no rear screen rather dark and forbidding. It also stretches way back beyond the heads of rear-seat occupants and can be specified (at extra cost) with an electrochromatic function allowing it to be made opaque if the sun’s just a little too intrusive.

One other natty function on the standard equipment list is the ‘Animal mode’. This allows one to leave the dog in the car with windows and doors locked and the climate system keeping them cool for up to eight hours – a reassuring message on the infotainment screen dissuades passers-by from smashing the windows to rescue one’s pooch.

Polestar emerged from Volvo so one would expect a top-notch safety specification. At time of writing, neither of the Polestars 3 or 4 have been tested by Euro NCAP, so we’ll have to wait and see exactly how well they perform. But the Polestar 4 comes with a long list of driver assistance systems topping the extensive standard specification. Some 12 cameras are dotted about the car monitoring for issues and controlling the safety systems.

What options there are come in packs. Most popular are likely to be the Pilot, Plus (included on dual-motor variants) and Performance packs.

The Pilot pack, costing £1,300, adds extra driver’s assistance including a cleverer version of the adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera, the Plus pack upgrades the audio to a Harman Kardon system with eight speakers including two in the front headrests, as well as splitting the climate control into three zones, upgrading the upholstery and adding a powered tailgate. The Performance pack we’ll talk about shortly.

One other useful point is the way that all of the technology is routinely updated over-the-air – Polestar sends out several updates a year ensuring that a customer’s car is always to the latest specification without needing a trip to the nearest dealer for a software upgrade.

We like: Extensive spec especially with safety
We don’t like: Option packs can soon inflate price

What’s it like inside?

‘Coupe on the outside, SUV-like space on the inside’ says Polestar’s promotional blurb and while this might sound like typical marketing speak, it’s surprisingly true, particularly in the rear. The long cabin means lots of legroom and while the curving roof line, exacerbated by that sunroof, might suggest headroom will be tight, somehow it’s not.

Once used to the space (which includes a 526-litre boot expanding to 1,536 litres), one can admire the fit and finish. Polestar does minimalist luxury very well – our test cars were fitted with an optional and rather neat 3D knit textile on the panels, but all of the standard surfaces look upmarket too. Combined with such features as electric rear-seat adjustments and media screens in the rear of the front seats, being transported in the Polestar 4 can be a highly pleasurable experience.

The driver gets their own fully digital instrument panel and there is a separate 15-inch central touchscreen. Unlike other Polestar and Vodels, this is arranged in a landscape layout rather than a portrait layout. It works in the same way as the Polestar 3, so personal preference for the screen layout is the only real difference.

What there are precious few of, are buttons. Just about everything is controlled on the screen – this is neatly laid out with groups of icons that change colour when one activates them and with a choice of eight ambient lighting options named after planets of the solar system.

This screen is impressive, but can also be frustrating as with so many functions it’s highly complex and initially daunting. Even to move the car’s air vents one has to consult the screen which is not only silly but more distracting than a moment’s flick with a finger – form over function.

As with all of Polestar and Volvo’s latest models, the screen is driven by Google’s Android Automotive operating system. This is a different system to the similarly named Android Auto, which is a phone mirroring system that many drivers will be familiar with. Essentially, Android Automotive puts Google in charge of the entire dashboard. Mostly this works well, as described above, but with frustrating moments. However, it’s less convenient for Apple iPhone users, as Apple’s CarPlay system is not integrated as smoothly.

We like: Space and quality
We don’t like: Too many complex functions on touchscreen

Under the bonnet

As mentioned the Polestar 4 is available with one or two motors and our test car had a pair. The single motor boasts a 0-62mph time of about seven seconds, while the dual motor slashes this to a frankly remarkable sub-four-second sprint. The battery pack is mounted under the floor, which both helps with the interior space and the handling due to a low centre of gravity.

The car has an official battery range of up to 385 miles with the single motor or 367 miles in dual-motor form, which is directly comparable to the kind of range one would get from a tank of petrol in a typical premium coupe SUV.

All Polestar 4s can make use of 200kW rapid chargers if you can find one, and when plugged into these a 10 to 80% recharge takes half an hour. A heat pump is also on the standard specification list, helping to keep the range up in colder temperatures. 

How does it drive?

Electric cars start with a distinct advantage in terms of refinement on the road and the Polestar is right up there. It glides away and gets up to speed with no fuss whatsoever. One could cruise around in it all day in absolute comfort without ever giving a clue as to how swift this car is.

Encounter a slow-moving vehicle ahead, however, and the twin-motor Polestar comes into its own. Overtaking is so quick that it becomes a perfectly safe manoeuvre on stretches of straight road too short to even consider making such a move when driving a combustion-engined vehicle.

Active suspension is standard on all Polestar 4s and proves pretty effective at smoothing out the many inconsistencies of the UK road system. The steering is pretty direct too, though our test car was fitted with the Performance Pack, a £4,000 option that draws heavily on the brand’s competition history – before it was a car maker, Polestar was a highly successful racing team.

The spec includes an upgraded chassis, tuned active dampers, bigger brakes and 22-inch alloy wheels (the standard wheels are 20-inch).

There are two irritations when driving the Polestar 4. Firstly, for all the hyping of the rear-camera setup, it won’t suit everyone. The image on the screen does not appear natural at first viewing, and the fact that the view remains the same even when lighting conditions change adds to the initially uncomfortable sensation. Judging the distance of traffic behind is also odd at first, though familiarity does breed more confidence.

The other irritation is the brake regeneration. Anyone who drives EVs on a regular basis knows all about brake regen and how one-pedal driving can help return useful energy to the battery. The Polestar 4 has three levels of regen – but you can only change them on the touchscreen which makes changing mode on the move virtually a no-no. What’s wrong with a pair of steering wheel paddles?

We like: Serious potency combined with seamless refinement
We don’t like: Lack of brake regeneration paddles

Verdict

In twin-motor form, the Polestar 4 is highly impressive in most areas. It has all the potency of a performance car but with the luxury of a top-notch executive saloon, in a level of space that it shouldn’t have judging by its exterior profile.

It will be a shame if the lack of a rear screen puts potential buyers off trying out this new upmarket contender, because minor irritations apart, it offers a lot.

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