Polestar 4 Review (2024-present)

What is the Polestar 4?

While most car companies name their models numerically according to size - in other words, the bigger the number, the bigger the car - Polestar does things its own way and names them in the order they were unveiled to the world. So, while the Polestar 2 fastback is coincidentally the all-electric performance brand’s smallest car, the Polestar 3 SUV is the firm’s largest, with the Polestar 4 SUV-coupe sitting in the middle. Confused? Us too.

The new Polestar 4 sits very much closer to the 3 than the 2 on size, though, so it’s still a very large car. However, it hides its bulk well thanks to its slinky, coupe-like roofline, which happily, doesn’t rob the car of too much interior space. To our eye, the lines of the car aren’t that dissimilar to those of the Kia EV6, but on a bigger scale. The interior also has the Swedish firm’s usual flair for style, too, and the on-board tech is front-and-centre for all to see.

With Polestar being part of Chinese automotive manufacturing powerhouse Geely, alongside its Swedish sister brand Volvo, the 4 is built on the same SEA platform that also underpins the much smaller Volvo EX30, along with various other Geely models. Two powertrains are offered, both with plenty of power and a massive 100kWh battery, and official range figures are correspondingly impressive.

In terms of the competition, you’ll also be considering all manner of prestige-badged electric SUV rivals with a focus on performance and sportiness. That’ll include cars like the Tesla Model Y, Audi Q6 E-Tron, BMW iX3 and Porsche Macan EV.

How practical is it?

The Polestar 4, although not quite as big as its Polestar 3 stablemate, is still a pretty massive car. It’s also a very handsome car, to our eyes at least. Polestar’s goal with its design was to deliver that oh-so-fashionable coupe-like roofline, but without compromising rear headroom, as happens in so many such cars. To achieve this, Polestar has taken the rather unusual - nay, unheard of - step of not giving the car a rear window. That’s allowed the firm to push the structural bits of the roof further backwards at the rear end of the car, so that the full-length glass roof extends over the heads of the rear passengers without impeding their space.

And it’s worked. Headroom is absolutely fine in the back, just as it is in the front, and in any of the car’s five seats, legroom is positively enormous. It’s the width of the cabin you’ll probably be most taken aback by, though. There’s ample space for three seats of shoulders in the back seats, and a totally flat floor in the rear footwell, so we can’t think of too many cars that are more comfortable when travelling five-up.

Okay, so getting rid of the rear window doesn’t come without its challenges. Every so often, when parking, you’ll chuck a glance over your left shoulder to look behind you, only to remember the car you’re driving, and that there’s little point in doing so. It’s not long before you get used to the fact that you just need to keep facing forwards and rely on the view given by your ‘mirrors’. Your door mirrors are conventional items, but the rearview mirror is replaced by a small screen that shows a live feed from a roof-mounted rear-facing camera. It feel slightly odd from a depth-perception point of view, but it works fine.

The boot, like the passenger compartment, is similarly massive at 526 litres, and 31 litres of that is accounted for by a compartment under the floor that gives you space to stash your charging cables. Or, if you prefer, they can go in the 15-litre space under the bonnet.

There’s a small lip at the entrance of the boot that you’ll have to negotiate when loading items. The boot space has a useful square shape, and if you need more cargo-carrying capacity, you can drop the rear seats down in a 60/40 split to free up a total of 1,536 litres. The folded seats lie level and flush with the boot floor, so your extended load area has no steps or slopes. This all adds up to a very impressive level of overall practicality.

What’s it like to drive?

There are two very distinct flavours of Polestar 4. The first is the Long Range Single Motor, which as the name suggests, has a single 268bhp motor on the rear axle, making it capable of seeing off the 0-62mph dash in 7.1 seconds.

Then there’s the Long Range Dual Motor model. This adds a second electric motor to the front axle for four-wheel drive, hiking the combined power output all the way up to 536bhp. This in turn trims the 0-62mph sprint time to just 3.8 seconds, which is proper sports car performance.

So far, we’ve only had the chance to drive the former, and although it’s the lesser powertrain, it’ll still be plenty for most. It doesn’t have that explosive, kick-in-the-kidneys acceleration that you get from some electric cars (the Twin Motor version included, we suspect), but it still feels very brisk off the mark. And although the level of on-the-move acceleration wanes the faster you go, it never feels underpowered or out of its depth.

This strong performance is accompanied by an almost non-existent soundtrack, too: you barely hear a peep from the motor, and other sources of exterior noise are also very well suppressed at all times.

There are more differences between the two versions than the amount of motors on board and the amount of horsepower they develop. There’s also the fact that the Twin Motor has adaptive dampers as standard - which vary their behaviour according to which of the various driving modes are selected - while the Single Motor has passive ones.

Like we’ve said, we haven’t yet experienced the Twin Motor, so we can’t vouch for the effectiveness of its extra hardware. However, we can assure you that the Single Motor’s passive setup is pretty darned effective. There’s a firm-but-fair quality to the ride, meaning that it strikes a good balance between keeping life comfortable and serene, while also maintaining a feeling of connection with the road that befits the car’s sporting intentions.

Grip levels are seriously strong, so you can dispatch corners quickly without fear of running out, and with tight body control, feelsome brakes and steering that is quick and weighty, the car flows really nicely along a challenging road.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The 4 has Polestar’s trademark interior design language that demands ultimate minimalism, so aside from a volume knob and some electric window switches, you’ll find virtually no physical switchgear inside the car. Instead, the car’s various functions are controlled through a large 15.4-inch landscape-orientated infotainment touchscreen mounted on the centre of the dashboard.

Now, that’s nothing new, but the software that powers it is. As is found in various other Polestar and Volvo models, the operating system is co-developed with Google, meaning that the navigation is powered by Google Maps, there’s Google Assistant voice control, and you can download a variety of different apps directly onto the system via the Google Play store.

As you’d expect, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are present and correct, as are Bluetooth, DAB radio, wireless phone charging and four USB-C ports (two in the front, two in the back). You also get a 10.2-inch driver display behind the steering wheel to show you all the important driving information, and another touchscreen in the back to give the rear seat passengers control over climate and media functions.

It all looks fab, with the main screen in particular having crystal-clear graphics, slick animations and a generally stylish feel. We also like the fact that the various menus are a constant on the screen, so you’re not required to scroll up and down them, or swipe between them, which makes it slightly less distracting to work through the complicated system.

However, it’s also true that there are just so many menus and widgets that you can’t help but get befuddled by the whole thing. Attempt to find a minor function within the infotainment system, and you may well try four of five different menus before you actually find it. The screen sensitivity isn’t the best, either, so when you’ve finally found the on-screen icon you’re looking for, you may well have to jab it a few times before your command is registered.

More positively, the system in the 4 isn’t quite as complicated in a variety of ways as the one in the bigger Polestar 3 SUV, which incorporates even more functionality that needs to be operated via the touchscreen. For instance, the 4 has electric seat adjusters on the side of the seat base for finding a comfortable driving position, whereas in the 3, even that has to be done through the touchscreen.

Standard equipment is reasonably generous. On top of all the infotainment stuff we’ve just talked about, and all the active safety stuff that we’ll talk about in the ‘Three things to know’ section of this car review, the specs include LED exterior lighting with automatic high beam headlights, ambient lighting, 360-degree parking cameras and sensors, a panoramic roof, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, and a heat pump for maximising the car’s range in cold weather.

Various option packs are available that bundle up desirable extras. The Plus Pack, for instance, adds an upgraded Harman Kardon sound system, flashier interior trim, three-zone climate, a head-up display and a powered tailgate with kick sensor.

Polestar 4 running costs

If you're looking to buy a Long Range Single Motor version of the Polestar 4 as a brand new car, then prices start from around £60,000. That’s a few grand less than the BMW iX3, which is slightly more powerful, but also slightly smaller.

The Long Range Dual Motor variant, meanwhile, will set you back at least £67,000. That’s pretty much bang-on with what you’ll pay for the latest all-electric Porsche Macan, but the Polestar is giving you a great deal more horsepower for your money. The Polestar is keeping some fairly highfalutin company, then, but still manages to inject some aspect of value in comparison.

Both versions come with the same colossal 100kWh (94kWh usable) battery pack, which gives an official WLTP range of 385 miles in the Long Range Single Motor car, and 367 miles in the Long Range Dual Motor version.

Polestar quotes AC charging times at just five and a half hours, but that’s rather misleading because the Polestar 4 can accept AC charging at up to 22kW. If you’re doing as most owners will do and charging at home using a domestic wallbox charger, it’ll most likely be limited to an output of 7.4kW. You’ll be looking at more like 16 or 17 hours for a full juice-up under those circumstances. Assuming you pay the UK’s national average for your domestic power, the cost of that charge will be around £26. However, get yourself on a domestic power tariff designed specifically for EV owners, which allows you to charge overnight at an off-peak discounted rate, and you’ll pay a fraction of that.

The Polestar 4 can accept DC rapid charging at up to 200kW, which is impressive, and can deliver a 10-80% charge in around 30 minutes if you find an appropriately powerful public charger. This is likely to cost a bomb, though, probably almost as much as a tank of petrol or diesel.

Polestar 4 reliability

In the most recent What Car? Reliability Survey, Polestar placed 23rd out of 31 carmakers considered, putting it behind pretty much every other premium brand out there, with the exception of Audi.

Now, obviously, that’s not a spectacular result that’s going to fill you with confidence about how dependable your car will be long-term, but there may not be reason to fret. Obviously, the Polestar 4 is way too new to have contributed to that performance, a performance that was based entirely on data for the Polestar 2, which is built on an entirely different platform, using different parts. You’d hope, then, that the hardware that underpins the 4 might prove a bit more sturdy. We’ll have to wait and see.

What’s in no doubt is that Polestar’s warranty package is rather disappointing, being a bog-standard three-year, 60,000-mile arrangement. The battery warranty of eight years or 100,000 miles is also bare-minimum stuff. However, you do get all routine servicing for the first three years or 31,250 miles of ownership thrown in for free, which is nice.