Review: Polestar 4

Polestar, according to the original mission statement, is an electric premium brand that puts performance and design at its core. To which we might also add “it’s not Tesla” as an increasingly potent selling point.

New boss Michael Lohscheller, to the best of our knowledge, has never waved a chain saw around in a meeting, but he’s certainly prioritizing efficiencies and commercial uplift—and he needs to.

Polestar sold 44,851 cars globally last year, a 15 percent decline compared to 2023, but retail sales are up 76 percent in Q1 this year (from relatively small volumes), bolstered by the arrival of the 3 and 4—and Elon Musk’s monumental hubris.

The fact remains, though, that while the brand's gross margin has now thankfully flipped from negative to positive, Polestar has still lost a thumping $190 million so far this year, while securing $1.7 billion in credit since the end of last year. The 4 is very much here as part of the plan to reverse such fortunes, and as this model isn't made in China it can look to US consumers for help.

The lack of a rear windscreen is a bold design choice.

Courtesy of Polestar

The 4 bears the imprimatur of Polestar’s rigorous design-oriented philosophy. The previous boss, Thomas Ingenlath, rose to prominence from the automotive design world, and his de facto number two, Max Missoni (now a senior designer at BMW), was tasked with delivering a coupe svelteness that the 4’s underfloor battery and overall architecture didn’t readily lend itself it to.

Rear View Filler

The solution, then, is eye-catching. Move the header rail back so that it sits behind the second-row occupants’ heads rather than above them, creating an unusually generous amount of headroom in the rear. Luxuriate in the benefits of a wheelbase that’s a solitary millimeter shy of 3 meters. Then delete the back window.

The result is a pleasingly fastback silhouette and a uniquely cocooning rear compartment. Any incipient claustrophobia is offset by the presence of a huge panoramic roof and the option of electro-chromatic glass.

The interior, however, is the best yet from Polestar.

Courtesy of Polestar

Polestar is strong on materials and ambient lighting; the colorways are inspired by the solar system, and there’s a choice of a 3D-knitted textile or ethically sourced Nappa leather. The quasi-coupe configuration also brings marginal gains to the car’s aero numbers, which in turn enhances the overall range.

But what of the driver? Much depends on how wedded you are to the idea of over-your-shoulder vision and a traditional rear window. The Polestar 4 circumvents visibility issues by fitting a digital rear-view mirror (from US supplier Gentex) that uses a feed from a hi-def camera mounted on the roof.

Land Rover has been using similar tech for years now, yet the jury’s still out. The image is crisp enough, but it takes a second or two for the eyes to focus on it. It’s jarring, risks ocular strain, and struggles a bit at night. Losing that back window also means you end up relying on the door mirrors more than usual. As you do if ever you find yourself driving a van, an allusion that doesn’t chime with Polestar’s aspirations.

Electric Identity

Pinning those down isn’t the work of a moment. Long gone are the days of Polestar being Volvo's electric sibling. It’s probably best to think of it now as Volvo’s sassier cousin, although the EX90 and ES90 suggest that the mother ship is in no mood to cede design or technology leadership to the upstart startup. The 4 actually uses a different platform than other Polestars, this one supplied by its Chinese Geely parent and known as SEA1. (It stands for Sustainable Experience Architecture, and it’s used by the Zeekr 001 and 009, the Lynk & Co Z10, and the joint venture Ji Yue 01, among others.)

Real-world range on the Polestar 4 will be well below 300 miles.

Courtesy of Polestar

Two versions of the Polestar 4 are available, both using a 94-kWh battery (useable) and 400-volt architecture (Polestar says an upgrade to 800 is likely at some point). The Long Range single motor car delivers 268 bhp, an official range of 385 miles (WLTP), and gets to 62 mph (100km/h) in 7.1 seconds. WIRED's test car is the Long Range dual motor, which adds an identically sized motor on the front axle for 544 bhp overall, 367 miles of claimed range, and dispatches 62 mph in just 3.8 seconds. It costs £66,990 in the UK ($74,300 in the US, with Plus and Performance Packs included.)

Rivals include the Audi Q6 e-tron, Porsche Macan electric, and the Tesla Model Y. These are all impressive machines in various ways, but the Polestar manages to locate the thing that eludes so many EVs: personality. The dual-motor version gains adaptive damping so it feels better planted on the road, and fidgets less over surface imperfections compared to the more stiffly sprung single- motor car.

Satisfying Ride

Polestar lets you choose between three different steering settings, and while none feels truly authentic, the heaviest mode is perhaps the best resolved. It’s a satisfying car to drive quickly, if a little more buttoned-up than the Macan Electric. The blend of regenerative and friction braking is also astutely done.

Option the Plus Pack and you get bigger wheels and tires and more “engineered” handling. But that extra dynamic precision hurts the range, which hovered well south of 300 miles during our time with the car. In terms of charging, the 4 takes around 30 mins to go from 10 to 80 percent on a 200-kW charger. The full suite of advanced driver assistance is available, Polestar’s kinship with Volvo bequeathing it with a palpable sense of structural integrity. You need to option the Pilot Pack to gain adaptive cruise control, though.

Despite any negatives, the Polestar 4 manages to locate the thing that eludes so many EVs: personality.

Courtesy of Polestar

Back inside, the 4 remixes the available tech to deliver what might be the most agreeable Polestar interior so far. Key information sits in a smaller 10.2-inch display for the driver, while the central screen measures 15.4 inches across and is now landscape rather than portrait.

Two things to note: While the 4 foolishly (and potentially dangerously) still asks you to delve into the screen to adjust the steering wheel and door mirrors, there are at least proper stalks for the indicators and wipers, and a physical on/off/volume control rotary switch between the seats. All is not lost, after all.

The 4 uses Android Automotive OS, but it benefits from a more intuitive menu setup than the Polestar 3, thanks in part to the screen's landscape orientation. There are useful shortcuts for the ADAS, and Google apps and services, including Maps and Assistant, are built in. That brings battery-minded route planning, live updates, and route-to-car functionality. Android Automotive and Apple CarPlay are also available (so it seems hopeful that at some point soon this might be upgraded to CarPlay Ultra), as is a digital key that syncs with smartphones for up to six designated users. Keep Climate and Animal Mode maintains a selected temperature on the air con if you or your dog is sitting in the car for up to eight hours. But who would do that?

Polestar still has much work to do settling jittery investors, but the product is undeniably strong. What's more, as the 4 is manufactured in South Korea (at a Renault Korea Motors plant in Busan), this allows Polestar to avoid the Trump administration's volatile China tariffs when exporting to the US.

Yes, the 4’s idiosyncratic design answers a question that few—if any—were asking, but the rest of it feels contemporary, solid and stylish. No mission creep here. And if Lohscheller's latest strategy of poaching disgruntled Tesla owners with discounts works, the brand's financial fortunes will hopefully improve further too.