Polestar, the Swedish electric performance car company, has announced that the world premiere of its next car, the Polestar 3 electric performance SUV, will be in October 2022. Polestar 3 is the company’s first SUV.

The launch of the car marks Polestar’s entrance into one of the highest margin and growth segments in the automotive industry, particularly in the United States. Here in New Zealand the five most popular pure electric SUVs are the Hyundai Kona, Hyundai Ioniq 5, MG ZS, Kia Niro and the BMW i M60. Year-to-date there has been 1,711 registrations of BEV SUVs, making up 43 per cent of total new passenger BEV sales.

What to expect

Polestar 3 will, over time, offer autonomous highway piloting powered by the best-in-class LiDAR sensor from Luminar and centralized NVIDIA computing power. At launch, Polestar 3 will feature a dualmotor drivetrain and a large battery, with a range target of over 600km (WLTP).

The confirmation of the world premiere comes with a new film and a first undisguised image of the car. Customers can expect to order Polestar 3 in initial launch markets from the day of the premiere. Production is expected to begin in early 2023, and Polestar 3 will be manufactured in the United States and China.

“Polestar 3 is the SUV for the electric age. Our design identity evolves with this high-end large luxury EV, with a strong, individual brand character,” says Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. “With this car, we bring the ‘sport’ back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots.” Thomas Ingenlath adds: “This is a major milestone for our company, one that boosts our growth trajectory and takes us into our next phase.”

Polestar plans to launch a new car every year for the next three years, starting with Polestar 3, and aims to increase its presence to at least 30 global markets by the end of 2023. This supports Polestar’s plans to grow tenfold from global sales of approximately 29,000 in 2021 to approximately 290,000 by the end of 2025.

Interesting facts about Polestar

• Polestar was established as a new, standalone Swedish premium electric vehicle manufacturer in 2017.
• Polestar is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and its vehicles are currently available and on the road in markets across Europe, North America, China and Asia Pacific.
• Polestar cars are currently manufactured in two facilities in China, with additional future manufacturing planned in the USA.
• Founded by Volvo Car Polestar enjoys specific technological and engineering synergies with Volvo Cars and benefits from significant economies of scale as a result.
• By 2023, the company plans that its cars will be available in an aggregate of 30 markets.
• Polestar has produced two electric performance cars.
• The Polestar 1 was built between 2019 and 2021 as a low volume electric performance hybrid GT with a carbon fibre body, 609 hp, 1,000 Nm and an electric only range of 124km (WLTP) – the longest of any hybrid car in the world.
• The Polestar 2 electric performance fastback is the company’s first fully electric, high volume car.
• From 2022, Polestar plans to launch one new electric vehicle per year, starting with Polestar 3 – the company’s first electric performance SUV.
• Polestar 4 is expected to follow in 2023, a smaller electric performance SUV coupe.
• In 2024, the Polestar 5 electric performance four-door GT is planned to be launched as the production evolution of Polestar Precept. As the company seeks to reduce its climate impact with every new model, Polestar aims to produce a truly climate neutral car by 2030.
• In early March 2022, Polestar revealed its second concept car, the Polestar O₂ electric performance roadster.