Polestar teases new details about its electric SUV ahead of October 12th launch

The Polestar 3, the aptly named third vehicle from the Swedish EV company, will be officially unveiled October 12th at an event in Copenhagen, the company announced. Ahead of the launch, Polestar is teasing a few new details about the all-electric SUV.

The Polestar 3 marks Polestar’s attempt to break into the highly competitive and highly lucrative SUV market in the US. When it comes out, it will slot into the premium category, putting it in competition with EVs like the Tesla Model X, Audi E-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQE, Rivian R1S, and Fisker Ocean. Notably, the Polestar will be assembled at Volvo’s factory in Charleston, South Carolina, giving it the distinction of being the company’s first EV made on US soil.

The Polestar 3 seems like it will be another demonstration of the company’s performance brand bona fides. It will come with a rear-biased dual-motor power train with electric torque vectoring via a dual-clutch system on the rear electric motor. Adaptive dual-chamber air suspension and active dampers will come standard, allowing the Polestar 3 to switch between comfort and firm suspension dynamics while adjusting to the road conditions once every two milliseconds.

Polestar will offer an optional Performance Pack, which provides the Polestar 3 with 510 horsepower and 671 pound-feet of torque, along with Polestar Engineered chassis tuning for the active dampers and air suspension. (The Polestar 2’s Performance Pack is included for an additional $5,500.) Polestar’s signature Swedish gold details are also added, including valve caps, seat belts, and a laser-etched interior light strip.

At launch, the Polestar 3 will sport a dual-motor drivetrain and a large battery, with a range target of over 372 miles (600km). In addition to being a higher-riding vehicle than the Polestar 2 fastback sedan, the Polestar 3 will also include a partially autonomous driving system for highway driving. That will be thanks to the inclusion of a lidar sensor from supplier Luminar, which is also providing components for hands-free highway driving to Volvo, as well as Nvidia, which will provide the on-board computing hardware.

Volvo, which jointly owns Polestar along with its parent company Geely, has said that it will roll out a hands-free highway driving feature as part of its next big platform update, the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA2), which will arrive with the next-generation EX90 SUV and the Polestar 3 in 2022.

Polestar went public this summer by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company was listed on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol $PSNY.

Polestar has only released two vehicles so far: the $155,000 hybrid coupe Polestar 1 (which has ceased production) and the Polestar 2 sedan. In addition to the Polestar 3, the company is also planning on releasing a compact SUV (the Polestar 4) in 2023 and the Polestar 5 (née Precept) sports sedan in 2024. The company also unveiled a sleek roadster concept called the Polestar O2, which will become the Polestar 6, and is putting its high-performance version of the Polestar 2 into limited production.