Polestar 3 - Reliability & safety

The Polestar 3 has been awarded the maximum five stars out of five rating by Euro NCAP, which is just as well, given the manufacturer’s ties to Volvo. That score was no doubt helped by its extensive list of standard safety and driver-assist tech; every Polestar 3 comes with nine airbags, adaptive cruise control, a collision-avoidance system (which can detect not only vehicles, but cyclists and pedestrians, too), lane-keeping assist, a driver-awareness alert and blind-spot detection. 

An advanced Lidar system is incorporated within the optional Pilot Pack (that costs just under £2,500), which adds acceleration, braking and steering support at speeds of up to 93mph, parking assist and lane-change assist. We tried out the lane-keep assist and found it to be one of the best systems out there, offering gentle movements of the steering wheel to keep the car in its lane. 

Polestar’s most recent entry into our Driver Power satisfaction survey was in 2023, where it finished a superb second overall.

Warranty

Polestar provides a three-year warranty as standard on the 3, with a limit of 60,000 miles. That’s pretty much standard among the premium brands that it competes with at this price point, but falls short of what is offered on cheaper cars from some Korean and Japanese brands, which offer cover of up to 10 years, subject to dealer servicing. 

The battery pack is covered by an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty, though.

Servicing

Polestar offers free servicing for the first three years or 31,250 miles (whichever comes first) of ownership. The company believes that regular maintenance for a fully electric car should be much cheaper than an equivalent internal combustion-engined model because electric motors have far fewer moving parts, and it’s commendable that these cost savings are being passed on to owners. There are 93 Polestar service points in the UK.