Polestar has confirmed that its self-proclaimed ‘performance SUV’, the Polestar 3, will make its official debut in October this year. It will be the first SUV from Polestar and a potential game-changer for the company.
We reported last year on the first teaser images of the Polestar 3. It will likely become the back-bone of Polestar’s overall sales charts, considering the public’s insatiable appetite for SUVs of pretty much all sizes.
Polestar even admits in its press release that the new SUV represents entering the “highest margin and growth sectors in the automotive industry, particularly in the United Sates”.
While Polestar remains relatively tight-lipped on the upcoming model’s powertrain and specifications, the company says it will come featuring a dual-motor configuration and large battery pack. The company says it is eyeing-off a WLTP-certified range figure of over 600km.
It will also come fitted with infrastructure for an autonomous highway pilot system powered by a LiDAR sensor and computing power supplied by NVIDIA hardware. Although, this will come at a later date, likely via an over-the-air software update.
Polestar says that it will begin taking pre-orders for the Polestar 3 SUV the day of its October unveiling, with production slated to commence in early 2023 in both China and the United States. Polestar’s chief, Thomas Ingenlath, says the Polestar 3 is the SUV for the electric age. He said:
“Our design identity evolves with this high-end large luxury EV, with a strong, individual brand character. With this car, we bring the ‘sport’ back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots. This is a major milestone for our company, one that boosts our growth trajectory and takes us into our next phase.”
Polestar has pulled no punches when it comes to a bold expansion plan, stating that it hopes to grow its sales figures ten-fold from 29,00 deliveries in 2021 to 290,000 by the end of 2025.
It seems likely that the release and both Chinese and US production of the Polestar 3 SUV will play a pivotal role transforming its production numbers.
News of Polestar’s performance SUV comes just a day after Polestar revealed a special performance variant of its Polestar 2, named the BST edition 270. It received a 50kW power bump up to 350kW/680Nm, and shows that Polestar is indeed invested in spicing up its performance lineup.
For reference of what we may see materialise in the Polestar 3 lineup, the Polestar 2 offers a choice of three powertrains, including a 165kW/300Nm base model paired with a 64kWh battery pack in the standard range single motor. The long range single-motor receives a larger 78kWh battery pack with the same electric motor output, while the dual-motor long range Polestar 2 produces 300kW/660Nm (or 35kW/680Nm with the performance upgrade).
