Today, Polestar debuted its newest model. Just as three is followed by four, next in the series comes five—in this case the Polestar 5. And the new EV is a little departure from the products we've seen so far from this Swedish/Chinese startup. It's a handsome if angular sedan that, like the Polestar 4 SUV, eschews a rear window in favor of more headroom for passengers and a rear-view camera.
"Polestar 5 is bringing the future to our present. Our vision for Polestar's design, technology, and sustainability direction is no longer a dream but a reality our customers can buy," said Polestar CEO Michael Lohscheller. "With its pure Scandinavian design inside and out, unique platform, powerful motors, sophisticated chassis, cutting-edge technology, and consciously sustainable materials, the Polestar 5 is a guiding star for the industry and the perfect Polestar flagship."
As we found out when we met the car early during its development, the Polestar 5 uses a bonded aluminum chassis, similar to various Lotuses and most current Aston Martins. Indeed, plenty of the development engineers working at Polestar's UK R&D center in Coventry can count those brands on their CVs. The bonded aluminum approach results in a very stiff but quite light chassis, making it a good starting point for a performance car.
The quick passenger ride we got back then convinced me that the Polestar 5 was going to be a problem for Porsche's Taycan, and a look at the powertrain specs confirms that. It's an 800 V setup, powered by a 106 kWh (useable, 112 kWh gross) battery pack that can fast-charge from 10–80 percent in just 22 minutes.