► Read month 5
► Did we miss the rear window?
► Why we preferred the 2
Polestar’s 4 is ambitious and stylish but, after living with one for six months, I can’t help but feel it falls well short of the best electric SUVs currently on sale.
First the good bits. The Polestar 4 is a looker, even in jarringly bright Electron Blue. It’s much bigger in reality than it appears seen in isolation in photos, but its styling is strong enough to ensure it looks like nothing else on the road.
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Like the sportier new 5, it achieves a strong visual jump away from parent company Volvo in a fashion that the 3 and 2 don’t quite manage. The hardware, then, is good.
But even after six months, Polestar’s first SUV still feels oddly alien. Clean, crisp and minimalist inside, it’s been a car I’ve always enjoyed sitting in – but not one I’ve truly enjoyed driving. For every interesting feature or nugget of design, there’s something else the Polestar 4 does that’s irritating.
On a good day, it’s all very cool and effortless; everything is working as it should. But there are also times when it doesn’t, and I find myself having to fish out the key fob and tapping all over the B-pillar until the doors unlock. Sod’s law dictates this usually happens when it’s raining.
Despite its size and width, the Polestar 4’s 563bhp and 3.7sec 0-62mph time mean it should be fun to drive on country roads. Wrong. The assistance systems are hyper sensitive, often braking or bleating on narrower roads, or roads with cars parked along the edge. It’s brought anxiety to every journey.
Features that’d be cool – like a built-in dashcam – simply aren’t working yet and the cruise control is so unpredictable that I gave up using it. For my commute up the A1, that’s an annoying miss. I’ve lost count of the times it pulled a seemingly random speed limit out of its frunk, too; 18mph or 37mph legal maximum, anyone?
I’m all for technology and improvement, but I get the feeling this Polestar picks the former without the latter. My entire time with the car has been a tale of two halves, with the hardware impressive and well designed, but hamstrung by buggy software. Yet there’s much to appreciate. For instance the boot is big and the passenger experience is comfortable.
Count the cost
Cost new: £75,290
Value now: £44,895
Cost per mile: 11.8p
Cost per mile including depreciation: £6.27
The story so far
Polestar steps out of Volvo’s shadow with its own fastback
+ Fantastic design; near-supercar speed; some cutting-edge tech
– Some software niggles
Logbook
Price: £66,990 (£75,290 as tested)
Performance: 94kWh battery, 536bhp, 506lb ft, 3.7sec 0-62mph, 124mph
Efficiency: 2.9-3.3 miles per kWh (official), 3.1 miles per kWh (tested)
Range: 367 miles (official), 382 miles (tested)
Energy cost: 6.7p per mile
Miles this month: 1037
Total miles: 4942
