Polestar 3 Long Range Dual Motor Performance Pack Review

There are exceptions to the general rule, but most of the brands on the market today with the most fully-fleshed out images tend to have a formal flagship.

With its (metaphorical) bright sails billowing proudly in the wind, its mission is clear: This is the machine in which all of a brand's values and most captivating qualities should be brought most strongly to bear. 

If one's brand is built on ideals of premium-ness and luxury, the need for one is perhaps even more pressing; that's supposed to be the pinnacle of everything you stand for.

With its latest electric SUV, however, the question for Polestar is a bit more curious: How does all of the above pan out for a name that's established itself mostly on principles of minimalism and restraint?

Quietly head-turning flagship

Arriving at last on our shores after being teased on multiple occasions, the Polestar 3 is the Swedish brand's answer to the relentless pool of full-sized, luxury electric SUVs that continue to roll around on the market.

You've long been acquainted with the Polestar 2 and more recently, the rear windscreen-free Polestar 4 has joined the fray too. The Polestar 3, however, is where the brand - with all guns blazing - appears to really be taking the fight to the big boys. 

As a start, it's got the looks to match that mission too. This is arguably one of, if not the smartest looking SUV, to roll onto our shores in recent memory.

The Polestar 3's front end is fittingly clean-looking from afar - but come closer and you'll notice this intriguing aero blade hidden in its bonnet

Best of all, it does so while still remaining intriguing and interesting to look at, with every new viewing angle surfacing extra delight.

Like the 4, this 3 reinterprets those Thor-hammer shaped head lights in split style for a look that is immediately eye catching, yet also distinctly Polestar-like. Clean lines are characteristic of Swedish design, and viewed from afar, the 3's front end stays faithful to this stereotype, but come close to its bonnet and you'll notice a neatly hidden front spoiler. 

Polestar doesn't officially position the 3 as a coupe-SUV, but it could certainly make a strong case for itself if it wanted to. Dimensions wise, there's no mistaking this for anything but a full sized SUV, but the 3 throws you off the scent on first glance with how low it is for its segment (just over 1.6 metres tall). 

The rear of the Polestar 3 is likewise wonderful to behold, with a large spoiler hinting at its performance-leanings 

Its beauty unfurls more clearly the longer you spend with it. Fittingly, the rear - with its lovely full length light strip - feels sleekly pinched and slim, with the exception of a rather sizeable spoiler that winks at the possible performance lying beneath.

It doesn't feel so large - but it's actually quite big… but then again, not really: So goes the mind when approaching and walking away from the 3. But the net result of this confusion isn't frustration; it's delight at a design that feels unequivocally modern without sacrificing the brand's DNA, nor feeling in any bit controversial. 

Spacious, minimalist flagship

As a modern flagship, the Polestar 3 also aims to quietly impress with its technology, and it succeeds to a great degree. 

A massive 14.5-inch infotainment screen - bigger than anything we've seen from the brand - takes centrestage, likewise running the Android Automotive OS that brand fans should find familiar. 

Having what is effectively Google-built software natively, coupled with in-built data connectivity offered by the brand, has undeniable (and unparalleled) benefits. In fact, it largely renders smartphone mirroring unnecessary.

With the car's infotainment system running on Android Automotive (and offering integrated 5G connectivity), it's unlikely one will ever see the need to mirror their smartphone

Your on-the-road tunes can be blasted directly from the directly downloaded Spotify/Tidal apps, while the in-built Google Maps can has extra functionality, such as indicating charging points around you, estimating the car's remaining battery percentage upon reaching the keyed-in destination - or even pulling the destination right from your Google account.

Dazzling proportions aside, having extra digital real estate naturally also means that navigating through the infotainment settings is a breeze. As expected of Polestar, the screen is highly responsive, and the graphics here are sharp while still cohering with the simpler colour palettes favoured by the brand.

Similarly pleasant on the eyes is the slim driver's display. Instead of inundating you with information, the 3 keeps things more straightforward with just, well, three screens to choose from. More carmakers could take a note or two about not cramming so much into a screen.

The car's digital driver's display keeps information displayed to a welcome minimum; meanwhile, equipment on board includes a 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system

The heavy digitalisation, however, comes with its drawbacks.

With the only physical controls being the signal and gear stalks, an expensive-feeling crystalline volume control rotary knob, and then the (also capacitative) steering wheel buttons, virtually everything else requires operation from the touchscreen. 

No matter how tech forward a car is, functions such as opening the glovebox, adjusting your side mirrors, or even activating the hazard lights should ideally retain physical controls. 

It's not unrealistic to expect Polestar-buyers to be among the tech savvy crowd, but more traditional-minded folks may find themselves on a learning curve when adapting to the car's rather rigid user-experience.

Where the 3 excels as a flagship, however, is in the space and zen-like ambience it offers inside.

Given the car's nearly three-metre wheelbase, rear legroom is unsurprisingly generous, but the 3 pulls off the feat of offering great headroom too in spite of its height. Shoulder room is another strength, with its sheer width.

Space is fantastic on the rear bench, with not just great head and legroom, but also great shoulder room on offer

The 3 also doubles down on Polestar's undeniable ability to make vegan/recycled materials feel expensive.

Covering the seats, dashboards and even door cards is a supple vegan-friendly leather that isn't just pleasant to touch and behold, but even smells good. In a Polestar, quiet luxury rather than ostentatiousness reigns supreme, so you can even appreciate that instead of a technicolour show, the only other ambient lighting colour that is offered on top of the standard white is a rather regal 'Gold'. 

In all, it's a flagship experience that feels faithful to what one expects of polestar, even if it admittedly strays from more conventional perceptions of luxury.

Flagship performance 

Hit the road and the 3 once more shines brightly.

Kitted out with the Performance Pack (which adds Ohlins dampers), the Polestar 2 has gained a bit of a reputation for leaning a bit too much into firmness.

But the 3 drives to its own beat of its own drum. With air suspension as standard, one of the first things one will notice is that the car walks the line between comfort and sportiness with finer balance. Even in the firmest setting, the 3 never feels jarring on the move.

Besides eye-catching Brembo brakes, kitting the 3 out with the Performance Pack also gives it slightly more power than the 'standard' Dual Motor Long Range variant

The Performance Pack also unlocks more power from the car's dual motors - to the tune of 380kW (510bhp) and a whopping 910Nm of instant torque. Set into Performance mode, the car punches itself to 100km/h from rest in just 4.7 seconds.

That's far quicker than necessary for a large SUV, but it does also lend serious weight to the 'performance EV' branding pushed so heavily by Polestar.

Behind the wheel, one can appreciate that the reservoir of power to tap on feels endless without ever feeling too frightening. (Passengers, however, are likely to disagree especially if caught playfully unaware by the right foot of whoever's at the wheel.)

While the 3's size and weight are unsurprisingly impossible to ignore, it's still an immensely confidence-inspiring car

While there's ultimately no disguising the 3's size, weight and elevated ride height, the combination of the qualities above still means that it handles remarkably for how big it is, and gives the driver heaps of confidence to push it harder than initially expected. Steering feel is commendable for what the car is (again, a big SUV), and also of great pleasure to the driver is the superb modulation of its Brembo brakes here - a traditional Polestar-strength at this point.  

One final praiseworthy aspect of the 3 is the amount of variation it offers to the driving experience (and crucially, without reverting to a "default" setting every time you restart the car).

The adjustment of various driving settings can sometimes feel like perfunctory additions that bear no real impact on the way the car drives in other vehicles. But in the 3, tapping across the different levels like steering weight, regenerative braking strength, or indeed, ride firmness, genuinely changes things up. 

Being able to adjust various drive settings on the car - and having them remain as you've left them - adds to the pleasure of behind the wheel

Consequently, arriving at that individually curated setup derives just that bit more pleasure too.

If there's one caveat to be made, however, the 3 doesn't seem to be the best electric marathoner. Our driving patterns would have returned around 480km of real-world range - some distance off the WLTP-rated 560km, which in itself already isn't remarkable for its large 111kWh battery. 

Thankfully, charging the 3 up promises to be as zippy an affair as it is quick on the go, with its ability to support fast DC charging. 

A flagship by the rules of the Polestar playbook - though perhaps not a flagship for all

As what is effectively The Ultimate Polestar now, the 3 makes a great case for being the new poster child for the Polestar brand. It's full of sumptuous space, and full of performance; it's good looking, and has a good eye on the future with its tech-heavy setup too.

In essence, it's exactly the sort of flagship one might expect Polestar to produce. 

Hovering around the $500,000 line at the time of writing (including COE), however, the Polestar 3 is also clearly aiming for a rarefied group: The likes of Audi's sumptuous Q8 e-tron, or BMW's monstrously tech-heavy iX.

The Polestar 3 may not be a flagship by conventional metrics of luxury cars - but it's certainly a worthy flagship for and worthy addition to the brand

Here's where the wider context of the automotive landscape throws up a question mark or two. Has the 3 really materialised as a strong enough contender that can steal a slice of the pie out of the current heavyweights? 

One suspects that against its more traditionally luxurious peers, the 3 may still have its work cut out for itself in pursuing a different sort of flagship experience. Nonetheless, there's no denying that with it now, Polestar's vision - held together by the pillars of electrification, performance, and quiet luxury - has never been clearer.