Article content The “P” in the 2025 Polestar 3 stands for “performance.” I came to that conclusion after driving the all-new, all-electric SUV on all manner of roads in Madrid and north into the mountainous countryside of the Spanish capital during the vehicle’s global first-drive event. Since bursting onto the scene with the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1 in 2019, the Swedish automaker has made a pronounced effort to pack performance-related features into its vehicles, a direct legacy of the Polestar name dating to the turn of the century when it was Polestar Racing, a company focused on modifying Volvo vehicles for racing.
The Polestar 3 is the automaker’s first SUV, a five-passenger full-size model with dual motors for all-wheel-drive capability. The SUV shares its EV architecture, called SPA2, with the full-size Volvo EX90 SUV, a platform different from the Polestar 2’s and the coming-soon Polestar 4’s. Power to those four wheels comes from a 400-volt lithium-ion 111-kWh battery pack with a reported EPA range equivalent to 506 kilometres (314 miles), an impressive number for a big SUV.
Maximum DC charging is 250 kW, which is fine for current charging networks, but could be outdated in a few years’ time. Being of Swedish origin, the Polestar 3 comes standard with winter conditions in mind, with a heat pump that uses ambient heat for climate and battery preconditioning. And the SUV is outfitted for bidirectional charging, for vehicle-to-grid and plug-and-charge.
