According to the firm, the Polestar 3, the appropriately called third car from the Swedish EV manufacturer, will be formally launched on October 12th at an event in Copenhagen. Polestar is revealing a few additional information about the all-electric SUV ahead of its arrival.
Polestar 3 is Polestar’s effort to break into the extremely competitive and profitable SUV market in the United States. When it is released, it will compete with EVs such as the Tesla Model X, Audi E-Tron, Mercedes-Benz EQE, Rivian R1S, and Fisker Ocean in the luxury segment. Notably, the Polestar will be produced in Volvo’s facility in Charleston, South Carolina, making it the company’s first EV made in the United States.
The Polestar 3 seems to be another indication of the company’s performance brand credentials. It will have a dual-motor powertrain with electric torque vectoring using a dual-clutch system on the rear electric motor. The Polestar 3 will come standard with adaptive dual-chamber air suspension and active dampers, letting it transition between comfort and firm suspension characteristics while reacting to road conditions every two milliseconds.
Polestar will offer an optional Performance Pack that adds 510 horsepower and 671 pound-feet of torque to the Polestar 3, as well as Polestar Engineered chassis tuning for the active dampers and air suspension. (A $5,500 Performance Pack for the Polestar 2 is included.) Polestar’s characteristic Swedish gold elements, such as valve caps, seat belts, and a laser-etched inside light strip, are also included.
The Polestar 3 will have a dual-motor powertrain and a huge battery at launch, with a range of more than 372 kilometers (600km). The Polestar 3 will not only be a higher-riding car than the Polestar 2 fastback sedan, but it will also incorporate a largely automated driving system for highway travel. This is due to the presence of a lidar sensor from Luminar, which is also supplying Volvo with components for hands-free highway driving, as well as Nvidia, which will offer the on-board processing technology.
Volvo, which owns Polestar with its parent firm Geely, has announced that a hands-free highway driving feature would be included in its next major platform upgrade, the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA2), which will debut in 2022 with the next-generation EX90 SUV and the Polestar 3.
Polestar went public last summer after combining with a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company. The stock was traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker name $PSNY.
Polestar has only produced two cars so far: the $155,000 hybrid coupe Polestar 1 (which is no longer in production) and the Polestar 2 sedan. In addition to the Polestar 3, the firm intends to release a small SUV (the Polestar 4) in 2023 and a sports sedan (née Precept) in 2024. The business also revealed a sleek roadster prototype dubbed the Polestar O2, which will become the Polestar 6, as well as a limited production version of the Polestar 2.
