Polestar 3 Long Range Dual Motor Performance Pack Review: A Stylish Leviathan

What we like:

Rapid pace

Immeasurable style

Great range

What we dislike:

Uninspiring drive

Could be more luxurious inside

UX could be updated

This fact about the Polestar 3 is almost guaranteed to elicit an eye-watering response: at press time, it starts at $471k, while the Performance Pack version as tested here breaches the half a million dollar mark at $525k.

This benchmarks the car with the BMW iX and the Mercedes EQE SUV - cars from long standing luxury rivals. For a new-ish brand still trying to establish its line-up, the Polestar 3 is reaching high indeed. Despite its ‘3’ number, it is actually the flagship of the range right now, not the Polestar 4. That explains its pricing somewhat.

One thing’s for sure, the Polestar 3 looks incredibly stylish next to both of them. With its minimalist Scandinavian design, the coupe-like flyline is cool without even trying. The chunky 22-inch wheels as part of the Performance Pack complete the look too, but they do make a firm ride, as we will discover later.

On the inside, things are less convincing. Although material and build quality feel good, they are not a huge step-up from its much cheaper stablemate, the Polestar 2. The all-black interior colour is also drab and cold. For a flagship, I had expected more.

The infotainment system was refreshing a couple of years back, but now it feels a little dated too. Leaning heavily towards looking clean and minimalist, it prioritises visual impact over user-friendliness. That said, even its graphics and resolution look last-generation.

In terms of features, the Polestar 3 feels ‘minimal’ as well. There aren’t fancy massage or ventilated seats, which are becoming increasingly standard even in entry-level cars. To get them, you need to specify the Nappa upgrade, which then also requires you to add the Plus pack. The Plus pack adds a Bowers & Wilkins sound system, head-up display and soft-close doors, among others. It takes quite a bit to stack up the options to get what you want. I don’t want to know how much more it will cost, too.

Being a large SUV, the Polestar 3 is commodious inside. With a flat rear floor, you could properly luxuriate in the rear quarters but headroom is slightly compromised with the sloping roofline. The boot has a clever storage system too for holding barang barang.

On the road, active air suspension (standard, phew) keeps the car fairly civilised even with those chunky rims. However, you can definitely feel the weight of the car keeping it busy. Sometimes, too much is asked of the suspension and it disturbs the ride. On the dynamics front, the Polestar 3 is frighteningly rapid with a 0-100 km/h timing of 4.7 seconds (5.0 seconds without the Performance Pack), but this is not backed up by a confidence-inspiring drive, because there is simply too much mass to handle. The steering feels aloof too. Despite the presence of immense amount of grip and pace, the Polestar 3 just doesn’t feel all that comfortable being hustled.

The upshot is that, like the Polestar 4, the Polestar 3’s range is incredibly good. With a massive 111 kWh battery, the 4 is good for 560 km of WLTP-rated range (632 km for the non Performance Pack version). You could easily get through a week, maybe even two, without charging. When you do, 10% to 80% takes just 30 minutes with a fast 250 kW DC charger.

The Polestar 3 rides strong on the cool factor but the brand’s edge seems to have eroded over time with competitors coming in fast and furious. Polestar could well use an update right now, especially from its Chinese overlords.

Photos by James Wong

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