Polestar 4 review: A Swede taste of tomorrow
A Swedish-Chinese love child, the Polestar 4 resembles nothing else on the market, but is it brilliant or bewildering?
THE Polestar 4 is what you’d get if you asked a bunch of Swedish designers and Chinese engineers to reimagine the modern motorcar, after devouring a library’s worth of minimalist furniture catalogues. You’ll either find it brilliant, bewildering, or possibly both.
For starters, I can’t actually figure out what kind of car it is. Sport utility vehicle (SUV)? Coupe? It’s too swoopy for the former and sits too high for the latter. Its unusual proportions produce spatial magic – it’s only a bit longer (and a lot sleeker) than a BMW X3, yet somehow feels as roomy as an X5 inside.
It even questions whether cars still need a rear windscreen. Now that cameras let you see what’s behind you, it does away with the glass altogether. What’s next, a car without doors? Maybe we’ll beam ourselves into the cabin, Star Trek-style.
Essentially, the Polestar challenges you to think about what a modern car should be, although its central premise is that it definitely shouldn’t be combustion powered. That being so, it ditches the fuel tank for a massive 100 kWh battery pack.
You can have that power a single motor (driving the rear wheels) or dual motors for all-wheel drive. I tested the latter over a weekend and could have driven it to, say, Ipoh, with a bit of right-foot discipline, thanks to the car’s impressive 590-km range.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Dual-motor electric cars are about going fast, not far. Sure enough, the Polestar packs 544 horsepower under its taut skin, enough for spaceship acceleration (it does 0 to 100 kmh in 3.8 seconds, if you want numbers). It’s hilariously fast in itself, but it also had an amusing habit of launching my phone clear out of the wireless charging pad each time I nailed the accelerator, as if playing a practical joke.
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Yet, the ballistic missile impression is more of a party trick than anything else, because beyond the novelty of violent acceleration, the Polestar isn’t all that exciting to drive. The long wheelbase makes it feel more like piloting a Mercedes S-Class than a sporty coupe, and the motors’ silence dampens the drama.
The single-motor version, which still moves like a good 2.0-litre turbo, might be the one to go for. It’s S$50,000 cheaper, attracts less road tax, and it’ll go even further on a charge (620 km).
Whichever variant you get, the inside will be as minimalist as a Zen priest’s bedroom. There’s exactly one physical knob in the entire cabin – for the volume – and it’s so sculptural it looks like it belongs in the Tate Modern.
But the price you pay for this visual tidiness is that you have to jab at virtual controls on the touchscreen for everything, even aiming the air-con vents. It can feel like a bit of a chore, and if we can’t walk safely and use a tablet, why do car companies think we can drive properly using what is effectively a big iPad on the dash?
On the plus side, the room in the back is enormous. There’s not much space for toes under the front seats, but there might not have to be, because the legroom is vast, so you can stretch your feet out anyway.
A tinted panoramic roof fills the cabin with light, but with no rear windscreen it feels cosy in the back, a bit like a hotel room with dim mood lighting, albeit one in which the air conditioning belts out a steady whoosh from the fans when it’s working hard (which, in our climate, is nearly always).
Still, the cabin is a delightful place to be in, especially since the ride, while firm, is much better than in the Polestar 2, which feels like it bounces around on concrete springs. The experience on the whole is pretty serene, especially if you choose one of the ambient lighting’s cooler colour schemes among several, all named after planets (yes, including Uranus – stop giggling at the back).
Mind you, parking the Polestar is a weird exercise, because you’ll have to do it almost entirely by camera. But given how this car rethinks so many aspects of driving, it feels like a natural progression. Indeed, choosing a Polestar 4 might be more about rejecting convention than embracing its thoughtful mix of Swedish design and Chinese engineering.
It will also come down to how enthusiastic you feel about a motoring future where buttons and rear windscreens are extinct, and your phone lives in constant fear of being launched through the cabin.
Polestar 4 Long Range Dual Motor Motor Power/Torque 544 hp / 686 Nm Battery Type/Net Capacity Lithium-ion / 100 kWh Charging Time/Type 30 minutes, 10 to 80 per cent (200 kW DC), 11 hours 0 to 100 per cent (11 kW AC) Range Up to 590 km (WLTP) 0-100 kmh 3.8 seconds Top speed 200 kmh Efficiency 18.7 kWh/100 km (WLTP) Agent Wearnes Automotive Price S$378,000 with COE Available Now
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