Polestar 4 Dual Motor long-term test: oodles of space, pace and style

Verdict

The Polestar 4 is quite the enigma. This sort of car is aiming to be many things, and therefore has a somewhat undefined place in the luxury car market. So does this mean it’s a jack of all trades and a master of none? We’ve got six months to dig into the 4’s complex personality and find out exactly what talents are hidden beneath its sleek design, and to figure out whether the many Polestar 2 owners in the UK should consider upgrading to it when it’s time to change.

• Mileage: 1,385
• Efficiency: 3.5mi/kWh

Is it just me, or did last year’s news of Polestar’s sticky financial results feel a little at odds with the increasing number of the company’s cars you see on UK roads?

It seems that for every Tesla Model 3, there’s a Polestar 2 just around the corner. In fact, it turns out the UK is the Swedish brand’s biggest market, which means the all-new Polestar 4 we’ve got our hands on for the next six months is probably more important than you might have thought.

We’ll start with where it sits in the company’s range, because the 4 is not a replacement for the smaller Polestar 2; instead, the new car sits above its range-mate. It’s priced from a round £60,000 for the entry-level single-motor car, putting it just above a top-spec Polestar 2 Dual Motor Performance Pack, and the line-up follows a similar format, offering different powertrains with various option packages, but no distinct trim levels.

The confusing Polestar naming convention dictates an order of a chronological nature for its models, rather than size. As such, the ‘3’ name has already been taken up by the larger and more traditional SUV that rivals the BMW iX, and is subsequently more expensive than both 2 and 4. Got it? No? It sort of makes sense, but you know what they say: if you need to explain it…

Anyway, our Polestar 4 is a Dual Motor variant with a basic list price of £67,000, but it comes with a few options that bump up the cost and specification. These include £1,000 worth of Electron silver-blue paint and a chunky £3,300 upgrade to Nappa leather seats in Zinc with a massage function. The £1,800 Pro pack rounds things off by adding a larger set of 21-inch wheels, gold dustcaps and a gold stripe to the seatbelts. All in, we’re at £73,100 – not an inconsiderable amount of money, but as we’ll discover, this is also an awful lot of car.

20

There’s not much missing from our specification, but the Performance Package with its 22-inch wheels, bigger Brembo brakes and unique chassis tuning is a notable exception.

On first impression, I like the silver-blue monochromatic palette inside and out. Parked on my crowded London street, the 4 looks huge, even next to the gargantuan BMW M5 Touring that I also happened to have on test when the Polestar arrived. The Swedish car’s tall stature, sloping roofline and broad shoulders mean it’s a cross between an SUV, a coupé and traditional saloon.

At 4.8m long, it’s only slightly longer than most mid-size premium SUVs, but is nearly 4cm wider than a full-size Audi Q7. With this large footprint comes a very large cabin, yet it’s unlike most European cars in the way it apportions that space. The boot is relatively large – bigger than I’ll generally need, at 526 litres – but the bulk of the interior space is given over to the rear seats. This is very important in the car’s core Chinese market, and while the second row of our car won’t be used on a daily basis, when I do have multiple passengers, they’re adults rather than sticky-fingered kids. So the space will be handy.

What we’re left with, then, is a large, spacious and very luxurious crossover-type EV that has loads of kit and a very impressive 367-mile WLTP range, thanks to its 100kWh battery pack. There’s also the rather significant 536bhp, a colossal 686Nm of torque and a 0-62mph time of 3.7 seconds. While I’m under no impression that this is a performance car,

I have already enjoyed the sheer ease with which it can deploy its vast reserves. It seems Polestar has ambitions to do it all with the 4.

I’ve managed to get this far without talking about the fact the car doesn’t have a rear window, but I am going to mention it here purely as a symbol. And that’s because the 4, more than any of Polestar’s other models, seems to be one that has no interest in looking back. We’ll be finding out if that’s a good thing over the next six months.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.