Polestar Reviews

In 2021 there was the Porsche Taycan soon followed by its closely related corporate sibling, the Audi e-tron GT. The era of the large, powerful pure-electric, four-door GT had arrived and they were due to be joined around the same time by the subject of this review, the Polestar 5.But Covid threw a spanner in those works and here we are in 2026 getting behind the wheel for the first time.The 5 instantly leap-frogs Polestar up towards those heavyweights as well more recent newcomers like the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE, with an initial two-model range - the Dual Motor at $171,100 and the Performance at $193,100 (both before on-road costs).Due in Aussie showrooms in the second half of this year, it’s ultimately very close to the design of the Polestar Precept concept that previewed the 5 way back in 2020.And at close to 5.1 metres long, just over 2.0m wide and a bit over 1.4m tall with a 2970mm wheelbase it’s a confidently sleek machine with a broad stance and an ultra-slippery 0.24 drag co-efficient.It’s underpinned by the bonded aluminium ‘Polestar Performance Architecture’ platform and clad with all alloy body panels to minimise weight and improve torsional rigidity. Kerb weight is still 2.5 tonnes, though. The interior is Scandinavian minimalism at its finest, but not at the cost of useful storage including generous door bins, a large central box, cupholders and wireless charging.The beautifully sculpted seats have been developed in collaboration with German specialist Recaro, the split-level dash is dominated by a central 14.5-inch portrait media screen, with a 9.0-inch driver display behind the wheel supported by a 9.5-inch head-up display. It looks cool and clean.Standard equipment highlights include a vast panoramic glass roof, top-end audio (up to a 21-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system), adaptive cruise, Pixel LED headlights, ambient cabin lighting, power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats, four-zone climate control and heaps more.Lots of breathing space up front and the back seat is impressive. There are four primary seating positions, but Polestar positions the car as a ‘4+1’ so if you want to carry a fifth passenger (on shorter journeys) the enormous rear centre armrest/storage unit lifts up to a vertical position.And at 183cm I’ve got plenty of legroom, lots of headroom (helped by the height of the panoramic roof) and there’s a lot of storage in the doors, plus vents in the back of the front centre console as well as the B-pillar and hard shell map pockets in the seatbacks.Boot space is a passable 365 litres with the rear seats upright (including 52 litres under the floor), expanding to 1128 litres with them folded and there’s 62L in the frunk. But no spare, just a tyre repair kit, which is not good enough.Both grades are powered by dual permanent magnet synchronous motors, the entry-grade Dual Motor packing 550kW/812Nm and the Performance delivering no less than 650kW/1015Nm. More on those fireworks shortly…The drive battery in both models is a 112kWh lithium-ion pack, the car’s 800-volt electric architecture allowing DC charging at up to 350kW for a 10-80 per cent charge in as little as 22 minutes. An external charging indicator on the C-pillar is a cool touch. WLTP combined cycle energy consumption is around 18kWh/100km for the Dual Motor and a tick under 21kWh/100km for the Performance, for official ranges of 670 and 565km, respectively. For increased efficiency the rear motor of the Polestar 5 disconnects when not required.Behind the wheel, even the entry-grade Dual Motor is able to run 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds and the aptly named Performance drops the number to an eye-widening 3.2sec. They are both properly quick!The front seats are equal parts comfortable and supportive. Superb location and not a twinge after several hours behind the wheel.Bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres are designed specifically for the chosen Polestar 5 wheel combinations ranging from 21s on the Dual Motor to 22 inches on the Performance. They are as quiet as they are grippy, which is to say, very.Then you can add ‘Active Road Noise Cancellation’ and the slippery shape means there’s virtually no wind noise, even up at highway speeds.Suspension is by double wishbones front and rear with ‘MagneRide’ adaptive suspension in the Performance. And while the roads we covered for this roughly 300km drive from Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast to Copenhagen in Denmark, were high quality there were multiple bumpy, patched sections and even the Dual Motor soaked them up effortlessly. You can cover big distances in this car with ease.The steering is accurate, quick to respond and adjustable through three modes. But that doesn't modify road feel, which I’d put somewhere in the middle - not the worst, not the best.There are three levels of regenerative braking (if you count zero regen as one). The most aggressive is a single-pedal mode which pulls the car up rapidly.The physical brakes feature Brembo lightweight 400mm two-piece discs up front clamped by four-piston calipers and it decelerates strongly.Worth noting the 5 uses the same camera-based virtual rearview mirror as the Polestar 4 because, as with its sibling, there’s no back window. Takes a bit of getting used to because there’s no depth of field.Also pays to be aware this car’s turning circle is 12.3 metres, so not exactly a micro car in terms of its ability to park and manoeuvre in smaller spaces.Active crash-avoidance tech is extensive with 11 HD cameras, a driver monitoring camera, a mid-range radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors onboardEverything from blind spot monitoring and lane keeping assist to rear cross-traffic alert and tyre pressure monitoring are also present and correct. There are eight airbags if a crash is unavoidable.The Polestar 5 will be covered by Polestar’s five-year/unlimited km warranty with roadside assist included, which is still the norm in the luxury segment. The traction battery is covered for eight years/160,000km and there’s a 12-year corrosion warranty.

The Polestar 2 was among one of the first electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia to break through to the mainstream and this latest update brings a number of subtle changes.

Like a few brands lately, Polestar made waves when it arrived in Australia, but has since struggled to capitalise on the original hype.One of its issues is that it arrived with just the one product, the Tesla Model 3-rivalling Polestar 2, which seemed inherently limited in how well it could do.But the brand has fleshed-out its range now with the sporty Polestar 3 mid-size SUV, and the car we’re looking at for this review - the Polestar 4. Does it have what it takes to keep building this premium challenger brand in an increasingly tough landscape? Let’s find out.First up, what exactly is the Polestar 4? The Swedish brand pitches this EV up as a direct rival to the new electric Porsche Macan, but one glance at the pictures and you might have noticed that this car isn’t an SUV.After driving it, I find the assertion that the Polestar 4 is some kind of ‘crossover’ even harder to believe. Really it’s a slightly pumped-up segment-bender which is definitely closer to an executive sedan than a standard mid-size SUV. Then again, its long roof and high bootline make it feel like some sort of coupe.I am all for this. SUVs are a dime a dozen, and cars like this with genuinely interesting proportions are hard to come by. Plus, as I’ll explore later, it has benefits when it comes to actually driving it.We also have to talk about the rear window. The Polestar 4 doesn’t have one, instead forcing you to rely on a digital rear vision mirror. You get used to it but it never seems to make up for the missing depth perception a real mirror provides.How much does the Polestar 4 cost? The car we're driving is my pick of the range. It’s a Long Range Single Motor with the pricey (but worth it) Plus Pack.The Long Range is, in fact, the base car, starting at $78,500 before on-roads, while the Plus pack adds a further $8000 of kit bringing the total to $86,500.Once you’ve ticked the boxes to get to this point, Polestar tries to tempt you into a Dual Motor - which doubles your power (from 200kW to 400kW) for $88,350 - but don’t go for it. Once you add the missing items, you’re at almost $100,000 and at that price this car makes a bit less sense.Having said that, the Polestar 4 impresses compared to rivals. The aforementioned Porsche Macan EV starts from a whopping $129,800 while only offering slightly more power and range. Based on the segment-bending design of the Polestar 4, I’d also consider its closest rivals to be the BMW i4 (eDrive 35 - $88,000), Mercedes-Benz EQE (300 - $136,600), or perhaps even the equally strange Hyundai Ioniq 6 in specced-up Epiq guise ($82,000). Interestingly all of those options offer similarly long driving ranges, but it certainly makes the value case for the Polestar and its 620km WLTP range evident.Standard kit at this money is fine, you get the recycled(ish) interior trim, big screens, big wheels, ambient lighting - basically the lot - but it’s worth splurging for the Plus Pack because you just get so many luxurious and convenient additions it makes it hard to say no.Sure there’s the (very good) Harmon Kardon audio system, but you also score the fancy illuminated door trims, cool-looking light grey contrast trims, high-end LED headlights, auto-dimming exterior mirrors, tri-zone climate, additional power adjustments for the front seats, a heated steering wheel and heated seats, as well as 22kW(!) AC charging capability.I mean, come on. I know they ‘get you’ with it - the Plus should have been its own trim level, but seriously, if I was already spending this much I’d be ticking that box.Maybe the real sell is this car's driving range, though. The Polestar 4 can travel ridiculously far on a single charge. It feels nearly akin to just driving a petrol car. In my time with the car covering a significant distance, I was always impressed with how much range was left every time I turned it on.I even took to charging it like I use a petrol car - just once every week or two as required. Thankfully, despite its enormous battery, it also charges relatively quickly. The maximum charging speed of 200kW should see the Polestar 4 charge from 10 to 80 per cent in around half an hour, but on the more prolific 150kW charging stations, I was seeing around 40 minutes.The 22kW AC charging rate available on the Plus Pack is a rare addition - only a handful of cars in Australia can do this. Unfortunately, there are fewer chargers that can, which makes this more of a future-proofing feature.Of the WLTP-claimed 620km range, my car was reporting closer to 590km in the real world according to my back-of-the-napkin numbers. With this much driving range you won’t notice the small deficit. I scored 16.4kWh/100km of energy consumption, which is not bad for a car this size.Here's some food for thought on the battery front though: Polestar claims to be the sustainability brand, and yet this car seems emblematic of the brand’s mission butting heads with its need to be a luxury automaker.Sure, a 100kWh battery gives it an enviable driving range, and the brand publishes a quite thorough emissions report which claims that the Polestar 4 is more carbon efficient than a combustion car or even a plug in hybrid (if you go by BMW’s similar emissions report for its 530e, for example).My issue with this is that 100kWh could be three or four plug-in hybrids instead of one Polestar 4. Which of those two options will theoretically remove more carbon from the atmosphere over 20 years? The maths kind of speaks for itself.The Polestar 4 is very nice to drive, giving off big luxury sedan vibes rather than the occasionally overbearing nature of some SUVs in this class. As you sit comparatively low in it, it hides the weight of the batteries well, and its 200kW motor provides plenty of immediate thrust while not being as overwhelming as, for example, the Tesla Model 3 Performance.So it’s a better tourer than a lot of EVs in my opinion. It’s also pretty quiet on the open road, and the attention to detail in the driver feedback and inputs is as European as they come, whether it's the sleek steering feel, or the smoothly integrated regenerative braking. Not too much, not too little.The ride is also relatively plush, offering a degree higher comfort than we’re usually used to from EVs with batteries this big. It’s not perfect though, and some terrain can catch it off-guard, making you feel the heft for a harsh moment.Still, it’s an impressive machine which manages to avoid the extremes.A final note on the ownership piece for this car. Polestar offers a five year and unlimited kilometre warranty with matching roadside assist, which is only really okay these days. However, it will cost you nothing to service the car for those first five years or 100,000km, which is pretty compelling, especially when combined with potentially ultra-low running costs from a home solar system.

The Polestar 4 is the mid-size SUV that is supposed to put the Polestar brand on the map globally. Its design definitely turns heads. And if you get behind the wheel of the fully electric vehicle, there's even more to love – but it might drive you mad if you don't specify it correctly.

The Polestar 4 is a coupe-style SUV that will be remembered for its lack of rear window, a bold design decision that ultimately improves its practicality – but it's not without its compromises.

The new Polestar 4 mid-size SUV is undoubtedly a head-turner in traffic (hello, no rear window), but you'd be forgiven for not knowing what this fully electric vehicle is. As it turns out, it might be the most surprising Porsche Macan EV rival yet.

The Polestar 3 is the vehicle the brand has been waiting for, with the large electric SUV finally giving this Swedish marque a fighter to send into the ring against BMW, Mercedes-Benz and even Porsche. The big question, though, was it worth waiting for? We put the cheapest version, the Long Range Single Motor, to the test to find out.

The Polestar 3 has entered a market where pillowy designs reign supreme for electric SUVs. However, the newly launched Polestar 3 is sharply styled and offers enough green highlights to enthrall enthusiasts but will its 'unfinished' tech get in the way of its success?

The flagship of the Polestar 4 range is the Longe Range Dual Motor which kicks off at just under $90,000 - slipping in under the Luxury Car Tax threshold.Interestingly, both the Single Motor and Dual Motor share the same standard features list. The difference is with the powertrain, and with some options packs that include things like fancy Nappa leather - but it is sustainably sourced.The Long Range Dual Motor has a motor on each axle for all-wheel-drive grip, and the power and torque is bumped to 400kW and 686Nm respectively. You’ll get to 100km/h in just 3.8 seconds. Range in the Dual Motor drops to 590km and efficiency sits between 18.7 and 21.7kWh/100km.As with the Single Motor, the Dual Motor comes standard with Android Automotive operating system, Google Built-in, wireless Apple CarPlay, an eight-speaker audio system, a 15.4-inch multimedia display, solar system-inspired ambient lighting, eight-way power driver’s seat and six-way powered passenger seat, 20-inch aero wheels and the camera-based interior mirror that replaces the rear windscreen. It also gets a healthy list of standard safety gear. 

The Polestar 4 is offered initially in two ‘Long Range’ grades, kicking off with the Single Motor that is rear-wheel drive.