Polestar 4 vs Tesla Model X

What's the difference?

Polestar may be a Tesla rival but the Polestar 4 looks and feels much more premium than the Model Y. The brand has taken its time to get the cabin just right and the sustainable materials don’t feel cheap in any way. In fact, this car feels special.

I may not be a fan of some of the tech - the digital rear-view mirror, for example - but many people will be drawn to the car because of these features.

On the road, the Polestar 4 is a cracking EV, with excellent driving range and a fun factor that can’t be denied. That aftersales offer is just the cherry on the cake.

This is Polestar’s best chance yet of being accepted by the masses.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

After nearly 700km of testing with both cars, it’s fair to say that the Tesla is indeed a capable tow vehicle, provided you keep the distances relatively short and plan around charge station locations.

Overall average - Penrith to Bathurst to Penrith

Fuel and energy consumption will always depend on the driving conditions, which is why we chose different routes for each leg of our testing.

Averaged across the two legs, towing the caravan with the Model X used 101 per cent more energy than without, or halved its driving range, which sounds a bit scary.

The LandCruiser by comparison added 63 per cent on average, which is still a big difference, but matters less in the real world when its big fuel tanks would still give you about 760km of driving range, which can be refilled quickly at any diesel-stocked servo.

So you could do a weekend trip with the caravan from Penrith with one supercharge in Bathurst, but it would’ve been highly unlikely to manage the extra 55km if you were leaving from Sydney CBD.

The bottom line is that there’s plenty of things - like smaller camper trailers - lighter than our caravan that will help the Tesla to do the towing job better right now.

Compared to the ‘Cruiser, the Tesla is a lesson in the benefits of a lower centre of gravity and road-focused handling.

As always, bigger batteries and more recharge points will go a long way to rectifying the Tesla’s towing shortcomings, and I'm sure we'll get there eventually.

But no matter what, its acceleration performance under load is simply excellent.

Thanks to our friends at Avida for making this test possible with the use of the 17-foot Avida Wave Tourer Electric Pop-Top single-axle caravan. They can also be reached on 1300 428 432.