The new Polestar 3 will arrive in October this year and go head to head with the Tesla Model Y – and the brand’s chief executive officer Thomas Ingenlath has revealed that it’ll cost between 75,000 and 110,000 euros. If Polestar maintains its current European pricing strategy for the forthcoming SUV, we expect UK pricing to start from around £70,000, with top-spec models breaking the £100,000 barrier.
Polestar has already teased the exterior design of the 3, the firm’s third standalone model, which is being pitched as a sporty coupe–SUV to sit above the Polestar 2 and the upcoming Polestar 4 when it comes to size and positioning in the line-up.
The latest undisguised images show the rear, alongside the new Polestar 5. There’s a full-width rear light bar and a similar rear bumper design to the Polestar 2. A panoramic glass roof panel that curves down towards the rear roof spoiler gives the Polestar 3 a sportier profile. That rear spoiler isn’t the only aerodynamic feature on show. In a recent image posted by Polestar we could see air vents at the front of the bonnet, flush-fitting door handles and vents behind the rear wheels.
Wide rear haunches lead into a C-pillar not too dissimilar from the Volvo C40‘s and the front has a pinched leading edge which all helps to give the Polestar 3 a sportier look. That’s just as well, as it’ll be pitched against the likes of the Audi Q4 e-tron Sportback and Tesla Model Y.
The Polestar 3 is scheduled to debut in October and customers will be able to order the all-electric SUV from the day of its reveal.
Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, recently revealed the brand will be forming a global partnership with the car rental company Hertz to supply 65,000 cars over the next five years – despite Polestar conceding the amount of vehicles being delivered this year is down to 50,000 from 65,000.
Ingenlath also said, “Any short- to medium-term economic effects have not dented our goal of selling 290,000 cars in 2025 – 10 times more than we sold in 2021”. The Polestar 3 is expected to form a large chunk of those sales.
The Polestar 3 will also share its production facility with the next XC90 at Volvo’s South Carolina plant and should start in early 2023. “Polestar 3 will be built in America, for our American customers,” said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. It’ll be the most important market for the model, but it will be globally released and also built in China for export into the European market.
The Polestar 3’s overall design shares plenty with the firm’s Precept luxury saloon concept, translated onto a taller SUV body. This is most obvious in the front end design, which uses a similar T-shaped headlight profile, thin blanked-off grille and sloping bonnet.
“Polestar 3 is the SUV for the electric age. Our design identity evolves with this high-end large luxury EV, with a strong, individual brand character,” says Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. “With this car, we bring the ‘sport’ back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots.”
In 2020, Polestar’s Design Director Max Missoni explained how the Precept would be a strong indication of what’s to come for the brand, with the 3 SUV the first in a number of models to be inspired by it.
“The next car that Polestar will launch is the Polestar 3,” said Missoni. “It will be a high-performance SUV that is a different car in its bodystyle, but I would say the Precept serves as a precursor to the design language that you will see in that car.”
While we’ve not seen inside the Polestar 3 yet, Missoni also confirmed that the Precept’s interior and infotainment system preview what comes next inside Polestar models. “This is quite a realistic statement of our future,” he stressed.
Missoni explained how Polestar has gradually separated from Volvo from a styling perspective. According to the design chief, while the Polestar 1 was based heavily on the Volvo Concept Coupé from 2013, the Polestar 2 represented a parting of the ways.
The Polestar 3’s design is intended to create a larger degree of visual separation between Polestar and sister brand, Volvo. It will share its SPA2 platform with the next-generation Volvo XC90 and arrive around the same time as its SUV cousin.
However, while Volvo’s electric SUV will major on ride comfort, the Polestar version will have sportier chassis settings. Missoni claimed that it will be a performance SUV and the Polestar 3’s more powerful dual-electric motor set-up reflects this. Polestar claims the 3 will offer an all-electric range of 373 miles.
The new SPA2 platform is an evolution of the first SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) and it has been designed to cater for cars including the next S60 and V60, as well as the larger S90 and V90 models. Smaller Volvos and Polestars, such as the 2, use the CMA architecture, underpinning the XC40 Recharge and the new C40. We expect to see it underpin the new Polestar 5, but not the smaller Polestar 4.
While most of the technical limitations of the smaller CMA platform are already known, SPA2 is a totally new step. On the Polestar 3 and next XC90, Volvo will introduce a range of fully electric powertrains and inside we’ll see the integration of a more comprehensive infotainment system in relation to the upcoming Apple CarPlay update.
Now read our full review of the Polestar 2…