Polestar 4 Dual Motor long-term test: it looks like the Millennium Falcon… if you squint

Verdict

Our Polestar 4 is proving a hit. We love its design and interior full of clever touches such as funky lighting and a slick display. It feels like the firm has hit the nail on the head, the car being clean and contemporary without feeling stark or plain. Even its annoyingly regular profile selection failure isn’t making us crack.

• Mileage: 2,789
• Efficiency: 3.5mi/kWh

I’m going to reveal something I might well regret, but here goes: I love Star Wars. Not sci-fi in general, but Star Wars specifically. And when I found out that I’d be the lucky custodian of a Polestar 4, there was one big reason I was really looking forward to it. It sort of looks like the Millennium Falcon… a bit. Well, maybe if you squint. 

Anyway, there’s something about how the high rear end, the lack of rear window and an almost semi-circular profile combine to look both contemporary and retro at the same time.

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However, I don’t think our car looks particularly futuristic. Its light metallic blue paint and black lower bumpers don’t sit all that comfortably with the ultramodern vibe – but in my mind it still doesn’t erode this association; the Polestarship still makes me smile every time I walk up to it. 

The sci-fi aesthetic doesn’t just relate to its exterior, but also the interior. I love the cabin, which is simple, yet features lots of clever, subtle design features that lift it above most rivals’. It’s not cluttered or awkward, as you’ll see on brands such as Audi or Mercedes, but nor is it stark like a Tesla, either.

There’s another nod to my inner sci-fi nerd in the ambient lighting. Rather than choosing between colours, each of the nine options is inspired by a planet in our solar system, or the sun, bringing up a screen with a graphic that also gives you key information about it. 

Aside from being a bit of a quirk, my inner eight-year-old thinks this looks like a display screen from the Death Star, assessing other planets to see how much laser power is needed for (evil voice) “TOTAL ANNIHILATION”. My personal preference is the soft-mid white ambience of Mercury, but I’m sometimes tempted by the sun’s warmer hue. 

The really slick bit, though, is how the lighting is integrated into the cabin – it’s done so cleverly on the dash, console and doors that every time I drive at night I still get a little tickle. 

Life isn’t quite perfect inside our Pole-Death Star, though. As is often the case with modern, software-heavy cars, there have been a few irritations. Things such as the way the Digital Key on my phone often kicks the car into the ‘Guest’ profile when I get in. It’s obvious the Polestar is having a moment when you open the door, as the steering wheel and seats begin their electronic dance to a completely random position, and the interior lighting reverts to the blue ‘Earth’ setting. 

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Annoyingly you can’t change the driver profiles on the move, either, so you have to sit there, wait for the Guest setting to load and then swap back. We’ve even deleted and redownloaded the key a few times, but it still reverts to the Guest setting. I hope there’s an easy fix when the car goes for its first service. 

Other irritations are a screen that can be switched to a crisp and clean Google Maps view, but my preference for ‘night mode’ only goes as far as that display. The main view on the screen retains its daytime view – I wonder if this is another thing that’ll be fixed by an update. Plus, the air vents never seem to blow where I want. A couple of tabs would be an easy solution for a problem that shouldn’t be there.

Overall, I’m still loving its serene cruising ability and high performance – life aboard the Polestarship Enterprise is good. Sorry, that’s from Star Trek, but I ran out of Star Wars puns…

Polestar 4 Dual Motor: first fleetwatch

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We cover over 300 miles without breaking a sweat

Some long journeys have given us the chance to evaluate our Polestar 4’s ability on a motorway. Refinement impressed us and the efficiency has been very good, although short of its claimed 367-mile WLTP range. A trip north from London saw us arrive for a top-up with 25 per cent charge remaining after doing 235 miles, meaning we would have seen around 310 miles from a single charge.

Polestar 4 Dual Motor: first report

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Swedish firm’s latest offering looks great on paper, but who is it aimed at? 

• 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.

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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.