To step into a Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or Audi is to step into an institution. Decades upon decades of legacy and, let’s be frank, bureaucracy, means there are rules those brands have to follow when it comes to design, interior layout, and engineering priorities that don’t always result in the best user experience. Polestar, a relative upstart, has no such baggage, and there’s no better evidence of this than the 2025 Polestar 3, the brand’s first SUV.
Being built in South Carolina on the same line as the new Volvo EX90 with which it shares a platform, the Polestar 3 was made to excel at pretty much everything—and it mostly succeeds. Unlike the EVs from Benz or Bimmer, the Polestar appears to have been styled by somebody with eyes. Unlike the EVs from Genesis or Lexus, it boasts more than 300 miles of range. Unlike the EVs from Tesla, the steering wheel doesn’t feel like it’s going to disintegrate after those 300 miles. And unlike the EVs from Porsche, you can adjust the air vents by simply reaching out and moving the air vents with your hands. Shocking, I know.
It’s normal. It’s good. It’s luxurious. It’s even sporty. It feels like it was made by people who are good at, care about, and genuinely enjoy their jobs but also know when something is trying too hard for the sake of trying too hard. And perhaps this is an indictment of its competitors more than anything, but that’s really all the Polestar 3 had to do to vault itself as one of the best electric cars out there.
The Basics
Right off the bat, the Polestar 3 looks pretty darn great. Squat, strong proportions meet a great use of Scandinavian minimalism. Concave shapes outside and concave surfaces inside make the car look and feel leaner than it is. Polestar’s presentation on this car included a slightly hilarious quote about how its design is “The kind of sexy a humanoid would appreciate,” and assuming we’re all just suddenly OK with the idea of both humanoids and using the word “sexy” to describe cars again like it’s 2005, they’re not wrong.
One cool exterior detail that’s sort of hidden is a Ferrari F8-style S-duct front aero thing that channels air through the little slit in between the headlights, underneath the car’s forehead, and up over the hood.
Inside, a lot of the Polestar 3’s UI is based around the 14.5-inch vertical touchscreen running built-in Google apps, but it still retains a fair amount of refreshingly straightforward physical controls. Gear selection, lighting, and wipers are controlled by stalks (wiper controls even come with a Hyundai-style screen popup that tells you exactly what you’re doing). Buttons on the steering wheel are actual buttons and there’s even a big, shiny volume knob complete with D-pad functionality letting you skip tracks without hitting up the touchscreen.
When do you have to use the touchscreen, though, Polestar’s system is one of the better ones. The software is logically laid out and cleanly pleasant to look at, and there are some cool animations of the car in Settings that show you what you’re changing up.
It’s not perfect, though. One big usability gripe is that, for now, none of the buttons on the steering wheel let you adjust volume, but a Polestar rep says an update is coming that will rectify this. The other big usability gripe: you open the glovebox with the touchscreen, something that’s unlikely to change with an over-the-air update unless Polestar figures out a way to build and deliver a whole button and latch system completely over the internet.
All in all, though, the Polestar 3 is a very pleasant and easy place to get along considering how clean it looks. Materials feel sustainably premium with soft cloth surfaces, tasteful open-pore wood, and restrained brightwork that make it feel like what Teslas probably wish they felt like on the inside.
The seats are ergonomically sound and simply lovely to sit in while the rear row is huge with tons of legroom for the segment. That spaciousness is augmented by a huge pano roof and a completely flat floor. Throw in 25 speakers from Bowers & Wilkins that both sound and look great and the Polestar 3 is a supremely nice place to spend a whole lot of time.
Driving Experience
Fun fact: the Polestar 3’s center of gravity is actually lower than that of the Polestar 1—a low-slung, two-door hybrid sports car—thanks to a heavy, low-mounted battery. A “torque vectoring dual-clutch” on the rear axle is an evolution of the system featured on Polestar 1 and ups the 3’s cornering prowess. Rounding out this car’s sport cred are staggered Pirelli summer tires, Brembo brakes, and a claimed 50:50 weight distribution.
It all adds up to one of the best balances of comfort and athleticism of any SUV out there.
A motor at each axle combines to deliver 489 horsepower and 620 lb-ft of torque in the standard car and on the road, the Polestar 3 puts down oodles of confidently smooth passing power when requested. It’s also a surprisingly confident handler when the road starts to bend, with a satisfyingly responsive steering rack being a highlight. Even just putzing around Jackson Hole’s town square, the Polestar 3 steers like a much smaller vehicle, with the wheel itself seemingly shrinking in the hands—it’s really quite nice.
The brakes, meanwhile, are strong and well-calibrated, and there’s even a little bit of tactile detail coming through the pedal. A wholly unnecessary but appreciated driving characteristic that’s subtle enough to never come off as disruptive or unrefined to more casual drivers.
Similarly, the Polestar 3 is extremely well-damped while never being floaty in all scenarios encountered in this test. Powertrain behavior, suspension stiffness, and steering weight can be customized independently from one another, and the differences are noticeable (I’d recommend Normal steering and suspension with Performance power).
Performance Pack
Speaking of, an available $6,000 Performance Pack ups the output to 517 hp and 671 lb-ft of torque while also throwing in supposedly sharper “Polestar Engineered” chassis tuning as well as 22-inch wheels and gold seat belts. This increase in power and wheel size also reduces the quoted driving range to 279 miles from the standard 3’s 315.
After driving both, the Performance Pack car is indeed slightly more potent but the dynamic differences, as the stats already suggest, are hardly night and day. If it were my money, I’d definitely just save the six grand and go for a non-Performance Pack car with slightly less power but more range. If we’re gonna be really frank, the Performance Pack’s biggest selling point may just be those nifty gold seat belts.
Unsurprisingly for a brand-new luxury EV with Volvo roots, the assisted driving tech works reassuringly well and is very easy to use. Adaptive cruise and lane keep work as advertised—there’s no way to alter following distances, yet though. Move the gear stalk down once from D to activate, and move it down again to deactivate. Simple.
Range, Charging, and Efficiency
On top of its aesthetic and driving excellence, the Polestar 3 is also pretty decent simply as an EV. This Long Range Dual Motor model’s 315 EPA miles beats its most direct competitors from what are arguably the EV leaders at the moment: the Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD, BMW iX xDrive50, and Genesis GV60 Performance which are rated for 308, 303, and 235 miles, respectively. As mentioned previously, opting for the Performance Pack cuts the Polestar 3’s range down to 279 miles.
A heat pump is standard equipment and helps use ambient heat to precondition the 111-kWh (107 kWh usable) lithium-ion battery. DC fast charge the Polestar 3 and it can recoup energy at up to 250 kW, with a claimed 10-80% time of 30 minutes. Polestar says the 3 is “equipped for bidirectional charging, enabling future potential for vehicle-to-grid and plug-and-charge capabilities.”
The Early Verdict
The 2025 Polestar 3 is a vehicle designed and engineered to please. From the way it looks to the way it drives to the way you interact with it, it’s all uncannily pleasant and lacking in major pain points or gimmicks. Most of its toys—the ADAS, the Bowers audio, the big pano roof—do genuinely add to the experience rather than be things that exist to be used once purely to impress your friends.
It’s little things, too. The Polestar 3 has what may be the most tight-feeling door handle I remember ever coming across. Chrome interior door pulls are nicely integrated into the armrest but not so hidden as to be hard to find or figure out. It’s one of the few bona fide luxury cars that still understands the value of innate luxury rather than ornate luxury, exuding a decidedly pragmatic attitude towards motoring that’s really admirable and satisfying to behold. And for that reason alone, it’s one of my favorite EVs ever. To borrow a phrase from the youths that may or may not be already old hat by the time this is published, the Polestar 3 is extremely mindful—and, dare I say it, possibly even demure, whatever the fuck that word is supposed to mean.
But even if you’re somebody who is immune to Vibes, the Polestar 3 looks great inside and out, drives enjoyably and luxuriously, and is simply, objectively a good car. Given a consistent place to charge (a caveat that arguably still exists with the purchase of any EV), the Polestar 3 is a vehicle I’d be more than happy to live with. If you’re in the market for an electric luxury crossover, this should be right at the top of your shopping list.
| 2025 Polestar 3 Specs | |
|---|---|
| Base Price (as tested) | $80,300 ($82,600) $86,300 ($93,100) (Performance Pack) |
| Powertrain | dual-motor all-wheel drive | 111-kWh battery |
| Horsepower | 489 517 (Performance Pack) |
| Torque | 620 lb-ft 671 lb-ft (Performance Pack) |
| Seating Capacity | 5 |
| Cargo Volume | 21.1 cubic feet behind second row | 49.8 cubic feet behind first row | 3.2 cubic feet under floor | 1.1 cubic feet frunk |
| Curb Weight | 5,697-5,886 pounds |
| 0-60 mph | 4.8 seconds 4.5 seconds (Performance Pack) |
| Top Speed | 130 mph |
| Max Towing | 3,500 pounds |
| EPA Range | 315 miles 279 miles (Performance Pack) |
| Max Charging Rate | 250 kW |
| Quick Take | Distinctively styled, impeccably engineered, and weirdly easy to use, the Polestar 3 is near or at the top of its class. |
| Score | 9/10 |
Got a tip or question for the author about the Polestar 3? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com