Polestar News

Polestar’s radical new concept gives a glimpse at the electric car brand’s future.The Chinese-owned car maker has debuted its Concept BST electric car at the famous Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK today.BST is a throw back to the brand’s experimental Polestar 2 from the 2020 Goodwood Festival of Speed nicknamed “The Beast”.That vehicle was a reworked version of the 2 designed to push the envelope of its electric performance.This time “The Beast” is a head-turning concept, which twists the dial all the way up and brings a motorsport flavour to the EV brand.It features bespoke bodywork with flared wheel arches, a wide track and giant 22-inch alloy wheels give it a stout muscular stance.There are plenty of aerodynamic features with a vented front bonnet, front splitter and a massive rear wing.Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said the Concept BST was designed to push the boundaries of performance for Polestar.“This car is a demonstration of how far we can push our performance brand - Polestar turned up to 11 if you will - and a demonstration of how we could apply the BST formula to our line up in the future,” said Ingenlath.Polestar has also debuted the 6 Concept, a sharp looking electric roadster concept.The Polestar 6 is built on the same platform as the Polestar 5, a future swoopy electric sedan due in 2027, and will sit atop the brand’s global line-up.The Polestar 5 and 6 could be in line for a game-changing new battery, too.Polestar has previously shown off groundbreaking battery technology in a 5 prototype.In a world first demonstration, a Polestar 5 prototype vehicle fitted with a new battery design from Israeli company Storedot,  and was able to recharge from 10 to 80 per cent in 10 minutes, or the equivalent of 320km of driving range.Ingenlath said the company needed to take the next step to address one of the biggest barriers to electric car ownership.“With this new technology, on longer journeys when drivers do stop they’ll be able to spend less time charging and be back on the road faster than before. In fact, that stop time will be more akin to what they experience with a petrol car today.”

Polestar has announced a new entry-level variant of its 3 large SUV.It will pack a single rear-mounted motor developing 220kW/490Nm to complement the 910Nm twin-motor variants.The new Single Motor has been confirmed for Australia but pricing is yet to be locked in. Expect less than the current $132,720, before on-road costs, entry price.That should aid the new Polestar 3 against luxury rivals including the Audi Q8 e-tron, BMW iX, Lexus RZ and Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV.The Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor uses the same 111 kWh battery pack. It is able to take on 250kW DC electricity, rushing from 10-80 per cent charge in 30 minutes.The additional efficiency of a single motor means the base Polestar 3 boasts 650km WLTP driving range from a full charge.It gets the same level of equipment as the dual motor such as a full panoramic glass roof, LED ambient lighting, retractable exterior door handles and 21-inch alloy wheels.The typically high-take up 'Plus Pack' adds a 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system, soft-closing doors and a head-up display.The Dual Motor models are faster to 100km/h with a claimed 5.0 second sprint (non Performance Pack) compared to the new Single Motor's 7.8-second claim.Polestar notes the Single Motor uses hydraulic bump stops and frequency selective passive dampers but does not specify if the Dual Motor's air suspension is fitted.Six paint colours, five interior trims, four wheel designs, the semi-autonomous 'Pilot Pack' and style-oriented 'Pro Pack' are all available.Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar said, “With the Long range Single Motor Polestar 3 we offer consumers a new entry-point for our flagship electric SUV."The rear-wheel drive configuration fits with our performance-focused driving dynamics that make the car stand out in the luxury SUV sector.”Originally slated for 2023 arrival, the Polestar 3's Australian release date has been pushed back to August this year.

Polestar has announced a mild update for its first mass-produced model, adding a smidge more driving range and streamlining options for the MY25 Polestar 2.

Ever since it was flagged earlier this year as an ‘indirect replacement’ for the company’s original EV model, the Polestar 2, by CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, widespread speculation has kicked off over whether the Polestar 7 will even again be a Tesla Model 3-style sedan-esque liftback competitor.

Polestar is offering a whole pile of money off its electric car as the Chinese-owned Swedish EV specialist looks to shift more metal in Australia. Far from calling it a ‘discount’ – the brand doesn’t like the word – the lower Polestar pricing is valid for orders placed until June 9, 2024 and savings add up to a maximum $15,000. An end-of-financial year special, the offer is also only valid on vehicles delivered by June 30.It brings the price-of-entry of a base Polestar 2 Standard Range Single Motor (SRSM, 546km driving range) to $62,400 before on-road costs – a saving of $5000 making the Polestar $3500 dearer than a Tesla Model 3 RWD. But you can make the deal even better if you forego any options.Omit the popular Pilot pack ($3500), Plus pack ($6000) and Performance pack ($9000, Dual Motor only) for a Pure Spec and Polestar will give you another $5000 cash back after on-road costs. This applies to all grades.Pure Spec models can have 20-inch alloy wheels added. Polestar is also offering $7500 off the base price of Long Range Single Motor (LRSM, 655km driving range) and a whopping $10,000 off the 310kW Long Range Dual Motor (593km driving range). Any option pack can be added and you’ll still receive cash off the price.While the base car’s price is enticing, it’s the fact you can get a 310kW AWD sedan that hits 100km/h from rest in 4.5 seconds for effectively $61,400 before you factor in on-road costs that’s most exciting. It means the Polestar even undercuts BYD’s Seal Performance. Polestar is the latest carmaker to usher in drastic savings to promote EV sales ahead of the end of financial year. BYD cut $8000 from Atto 3 demonstrators, Tesla carved margin from its whole range, Peugeot knocked a third off its e-2008 SUV (which is now sold out) and Nissan chopped a chunk from Leaf pricing.Polestar has delivered 448 examples of its 2 lifted sedan this year, short of the BMW i4 (663) and a long way adrift of Tesla’s dominant Model 3 sedan (6865). The price cut comes as a surprise after Polestar Australia Managing Director Samantha Johnson told CarsGuide “we don’t do discounts” at the updated sedan's launch in August 2023.It remains to be seen if cheaper prices will increase local sales of the Polestar 2.Polestar 2 pricing (before on-road costs, valid until June 9, 2024) 

A tech company is on the cusp of a game-changing electric car breakthrough. StoreDot, an Israeli company that specialises in lithium-ion battery technology, has successfully trialled a revolutionary new battery that is capable of ultra fast charging.

With order books already open, the first pre-production examples of the Polestar 4 SUV coupe have landed on local soil with CarsGuide recently attending a pre-sale preview of the new pure-electric five-seater.

Electric carmaker Polestar has become the latest brand to walk away from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries due to the peak motoring body's opposition to stricter emission laws

The Polestar 4 is now on sale in Australia, but don't let the price fool you - this has everything you need... apart from a rear window.

Did you know that you can buy a stick-on grille to ‘fix’ your Tesla? You know - because it’s an electric car and doesn’t need a grille, but the lack of said grille and the smooth featureless plastic in its place looks odd to many of us.EVs are ushering in a new look that can be jarring to some eyes, but there’s a good reason why we find them strange and why electric vehicles have these faces,Which may not again soon change back to be more beautiful.Of course the stick-on Tesla grille you can buy online isn’t an official Tesla genuine product and the company would never endorse such a thing, but that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurial folks from seeing a gap in the market. And these stick-on grilles actually look pretty good when glued to the front of a Model 3 - well, to my eyes anyway.It’s not that I find the frog-like face of the Model 3 ugly. I quite like the futuristic look of Teslas and most other electric vehicles from the Hyundai Kona, Kia EV9 and MG4 to the Audi e-tron GT, Polestar 2 and Volvo EX30  - even Rivian with its goofy-robot-face design.The thing is our brains are accustomed to seeing grilles because for the past 125 years cars have always had grilles and they’ve featured prominently, like mouths on faces. There was the Ford Model T with it’s tall tombstone-like radiator which really set the trend all the way through to the 1950s and ’60s grilles like the chrome-coated extravagant centrepieces such as on a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. The 1970s brought in muscle cars with their ‘power grilles’ such as on the Mustang and Camaro, meanwhile Rolls-Royce was going stately with something that look likes the facade of a mansion - on a car which would be parked in front of a mansion. The 1980s saw grilles get a reduction as Japanese small cars such as the Mazda 323 and Toyota Corolla set a minimalist look akin to vertical blinds. This look became dominant globally and lasted through to the 2000s when grilles made a huge comeback.I’m going to credit Audi with models such as the 2005 A5 and its trapezoidal shaped plunging grille which was enormous for the time and a design a lot of brands seemingly copied, knowingly or not, right up until today.We're now in a period I like to call 'Peak Grille' when the ‘mouths’ of cars have reached epic propositions and almost look ridiculous - BMW 7 series anybody?Yes, there are exceptions to the grille rule - Porsche and other mid- and rear-engine sports cars that lack a radiator in the front are obvious ones. Meanwhile big American pick-up trucks have always gone huge when it comes to grilles.And just as we’ve hit Peak Grille, the things we’ve come so used to seeing are being deleted entirely. It’s a form of culture shock in a way and I think we’re all handling it very well.So that’s the reason we find these electric faces odd or ugly, but why do EVs have to look like this? That’s easy to answer - there are two drivers for this.The first is the lack of a combustion engine that needs to be cooled with a radiator to stop it from overheating. EVs still need cooling systems and radiators but not the huge ones needed by a petrol- or diesel-powered car.The second is aerodynamics. A grille is designed to suck in air - it’s like a window opened in a high rise apartment on a windy day. Good for cooling, bad for aerodynamics. In fact the main reason why residents of tall buildings are told to close their windows in high winds is because it can lead to structural failure. Yep, the apartments act like wind pockets and the force of air rushing into them collectively could rip the place apart. The wind resistance caused by a giant pocket like a grille on the front of an electric car would not destroy the car, but it would destroy the electric range of the car. The batteries would have to use a silly amount of their electricity just to overcome wind force. So the smooth frog-like face of a Tesla looks that way to ensure air flows around the front of the car with as little resistance as possible.That’s why electric cars tend to have these bulbous smooth faces. Take the petrol-powered and electric version of the Hyundai Kona small SUV. One has a big grille to cool the combustion engine, the other has a smooth rounded and closed face.The drag coefficient of the petrol Kona is 0.34 compared to 0.27 for the Kona Electric. In aerodynamics that difference is huge. So what would happen if the Kona Electric had the same frontal design and grille as the petrol version? “It would hamper electric range,” says Hyundai’s Senior Manager of Future Mobility, Scott Nargar.  “It would be less efficient and it would take more to propel it through the air. All EVs will have very rounded surfaces to push the air to the side or under or over the vehicle in the most efficient way possible. It even comes down to the way the wiper blades are designed and the way the air kicks up over them.“At the same time as you’re pushing air around the vehicle you have to be very careful though because EVs are a lot quieter and you don’t have a combustion engine to create noise. So any wind noise you’re creating around the door frame, the window, the bonnet - those noises are enhanced.“So you have to make cars as efficient and as slippery as possible to reduce the amount of wind noise around every little surface.“You’re working on a fine-edge blade - what’s in the best interest of aero and efficiency against making a car look beautiful. The guys in aerodynamics will always be pushing against the guys that have to market and sell the vehicle. So it’s always a push and shove: what is the target you’re trying to achieve for the vehicle against what is the market you’re trying to target?”Polestar’s Deputy Chief Technical Officer and Head of UK R&D, Pete Allen, agrees with Nagar, saying that the smooth and grilleless face is necessary for achieving the most amount of range possible, but car companies have to design desirable objects too, and not just cars that look like slippery bars of soap.  “If you want maximum range, then you have to have a very bulbous kind of front end, because most of the aero drag is coming from the front of the car,” Allen says. “So if you have very low drag, then you end up with a big, plain shape. Others do that, they take that approach. Then when it comes to dynamics, you can have very low rolling-resistance tyres. But then you have a car which is compromised in its design, and compromised in its vehicle dynamics."Allen says that as bigger batteries start to offer better range, designers won’t be steered so forcibly by aerodynamic needs and be able to style cars to look more pleasing to the eye.“So then the question is, how do you balance the range attributes with the desirability of the design and the driving dynamics?” he says.   “Polestar is not about out-and-out maximum range.”So it seems not even the carmakers are in love with the looks that their EVs need to have to go the distance - and this could lead to change as batteries get better.In the meantime, there’s always those stick-on grilles…