Volvo-Owned Polestar Unveils Its First Luxury Electric SUV

pcmag.com:

Tesla competitor Polestar this week took the wraps off its first SUV, the $84,000 Polestar 3, which boasts a 300-mile range, up from 260 miles on the Polestar 2.

Ahead of a live-streamed reveal, YouTube viewers were buzzing about the next-gen EV, which will begin deliveries in Q4 2023.

"I think maybe a [Tesla] Model Y competitor?"

"If it’s going to be as good as the Polestar 2 it will be fantastic."

"I’m here to look at more cars I can’t afford!"

There are currently 67,000 Polestar vehicles on the road today, said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar, when he took the stage. The company released the Polestar 1(Opens in a new window), a $155,000 hybrid coupe, in 2019, and the Polestar 2(Opens in a new window), a $48,000 all-electric sedan, a year later.

An SUV is a natural evolution for the company's next product, according to Ingenlath, who argued that "when humankind started riding horses and felt the thrill of sitting high up in command of the animal, the fuel for SUVs was born."

The Polestar 3 is indeed a racehorse. It goes from zero to 60 in 4.6 seconds with 517 horsepower and runs on a 400-volt lithium-ion battery.

"We designed this car for performance," said Maximilian Missoni, Polestar's head of design. "The doors and handles are flush to the vehicle like an airplane fuselage to optimize aerodynamics."

The battery floor lowers the car's center of gravity, and each axle has an electric motor to distribute torque evenly between the four wheels.

The car can go from a 10% to 80% charge in 30 minutes with 250kW DC fast charging. DC fast charging typically ranges from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the vehicle and outside temperature, so this is on the lower end.

The car will have only two rows with a total of five