Over the past few weeks, we've been getting to know the 2025 Polestar 3 a little better. This is the fourth and final chapter of our long-term test of the EV.
See also: 2025 Polestar 3 Long-Term Test, Part 1: The Guinea Pig and His Mount
See also: 2025 Polestar 3 Long-Term Test, Part 2: From Theory to Practice
See also: 2025 Polestar 3, Long-Term Test, Part 3: Highs and Lows
I really like the exterior look of the Polestar 3. Its body projects dynamism, like an arrow – OK, a thick arrow – ready to cut through the air, even as its dimensions give the vehicle utilitarian appeal. As evidenced by the 484 litres of storage behind the rear seats, and the 1,411 litres available once you’re thrown out the passengers and folded the 60/40 rear seatbacks down.
In this respect, both the Cadillac Lyriq (1,723 litres in all) and BMW iX (2,205) do better, but the 3 handily offers what you expect from an SUV.
On the other hand, Polestar designers succumbed to the temptation to place a spoiler at each end of the car. Spoilers welded on the sides, therefore hollow rectangles, with one placed at the end of the hood, the other at the top of the tailgate.
I don't know if they play a predominant role in the car's aerodynamics, but I can tell you that when it comes time to clear snow, those “holes” don't make the task easy. The snow brush can barely fit in them.
The interior
I could use up precious brain cells coming up with colourful and precise adjectives to describe the interior of Polestar’s first five-seat SUV, but these will suffice: sleek, racy, modern.
The large 14.5-inch centre screen is an obvious eye-catcher. Almost everything you’ll do, you’ll do on there. That includes but is not limited to opening the glove compartment. Driver data info is displayed on a 9-inch screen behind the steering wheel, as well as the head-up display further front.
So far, nothing transcendent. Tesla started the trend of steroidal screens, and many automakers have followed suit. On the other hand, the design that gravitates around the glass panels creates a decor with a simplicity, beauty and quality that attest to the manufacturer's Scandinavian roots.
That’s also apparent in the soothing colour palettes. Nappa leather is replaced by a vegan material or wool traceable to its original farm. Black ash wood adds a modern classicism. Each line of the dashboard and doors seems to have been studied to simplify daily driving life.
The exercise may even have been taken a little too far, at least according to my prehistoric ideas RE "button culture." Judge for yourself if I’m being a luddite or not: the four windows are operated via only two switches. To operate the rear windows, you must first change the function of the correct switch via the centre screen.
As for the spokes of the beautiful steering wheel adorned with the North Star, they do indeed have buttons that, one suspects, control this and that, but what exactly? There are no symbols! Just a pretty black piano gloss. As useful as a clock without hands.
Timothée Girard, the affable sales manager of the Polestar dealership in Laval, took the time to explain the subtleties of the car to me as if I were a customer taking delivery.
"You see, if you press this button, the information appears on the instrument cluster. If you press its lower edge, this happens. Touch the top and that happens."
Sorry, Tim, but I spent the three months of my test drive wary of those mysterious buttons. Imagine if I had unknowingly pressed the ejector seat command...
A clumsy intro, that, into talking about the seats. You’ve probably heard about this since the time of the Vikings, but Volvo seats really are among the most satisfying in the industry. As a proud luxury division, Polestar keeps up the tradition. Whether it's the driver's throne or the three rear seats, comfort reigns. Their shapes match ours. And even visually, these seats are downright beautiful. The gold-coloured seat belts (to match the disc calipers), a Polestar signature, complete the sporty chic look.
There’s autonomous, and there’s autonomous
Despite my uneasy relationship with the commands, I was still able to activate the Polestar 3's semi-autonomous driving system - proof that maybe I’m not so hopeless after all.
I didn't find the feature worked fluidly enough, to be honest. Mainly due to the abrupt course corrections and hesitations in turns. Furthermore, it doesn't hesitate to constantly harp on you when your eyes neglect the road. If you persist in consulting your phone while driving, the message "Steering assist unavailable until next drive" appears. You have been punished by the car.
Also, the concept of “hands-free” driving currently has its limits, since most systems require you to place your palms back on the steering wheel, sooner or later (usually the former). However, the Polestar 3's steering wheel often refused to recognize that I was gripping it, if the heating element was turned on. No doubt the sensor no longer knew which heat to trust.
The most memorable bug occurred in Montreal, in the trendy Plateau Mont-Royal area, while I was on my way home from an evening party (I only attend parties in trendy parts of town, of course). Three children asleep on the bench, my girlfriend asleep to my right, I was moving at snail's pace behind a Nissan Versa in a snowy alley when suddenly the dashboard lit up, those beautiful gold belts tightened, an alarm sounded and the car braked as if the lives of all its occupants depended on it! I'd never experienced such brutal emergency braking!
The children woke up screaming and while the adults in the room luckily refrained from that, we were certain that someone or something had hit us.
This episode I made sure to relate to Hugues Bissonnette, Polestar's national director, afterwards. He didn’t seem shocked. “I heard a story of a car that braked in reverse at a customer's house because it mistook the slope of his garage entrance for an obstacle. I also know that the camera sensitivity has been improved in the latest version of the software. Will that fix all the unintended braking? I don't know, but it's one of the notes that go to headquarters to correct these shortcomings.”
Ah, the life of a guinea pig. I've been feeling a little like Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17.
The final word
Polestar Canada entrusted Auto123 and your humble servant with a rare Polestar 3 that was not yet ready to be delivered to Canadian customers who’d been waiting patiently for months to receive theirs. Hughes had warned me. “Essentially we were putting a pre-production car in your hands.”
I'm quite sure the regular software updates will a) squash the bugs and b) allow Polestar to both improve the 3’s existing functions and add new ones.
To be frank, I would have liked to have faster charging at a Level 3 public charging station. Waiting 30 minutes for 80 percent isn't the radical improvement on the norm that I’d like. But that’s coming - manufacturers are turning increasingly to 800-volt architectures and, fortunately, Polestar is preparing to join the parade.
Beyond that, personally, I would not check the Performance Group option. What it does to make the vehicle swifter and more dynamic is undeniable, but I would gladly let go of the additional 28 horses and the three tenths of a second less on the 0-100 km/h time in return for a range of 500 km instead of 440. Not to mention the roughly $7,000 saved.
Ultimately, would I buy a Polestar 3? Absolutely. But I would leave it to those brave “early adopters” to report to the company the corrections to be made. Thanks to its dynamic handling, high-end interior, comfort and generous space, this electric SUV has immense potential, which should be fully exploited once the engineers and technicians have corrected the inevitable warts and hiccups of what is a hyper-talented newborn.
