First Drive of the Polestar 4!

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

Polestar is finally bringing the highly anticipated Polestar 4 to the United States and they invited CleanTechnica out to Austin, Texas, to be some of the first people in the world outside of the company to drive their newest creation.

Disclaimer: Polestar paid for the author’s travel and accommodations to attend this event.

On the outside, the Polestar 4 looks a lot like the Polestar 2, but with a more streamlined rear section that completely did away with the rear window. This accomplished several things, including improving rear passenger headroom. Keeping the headliner as high as possible and pushing the rear overhead support as far back as possible optimized headroom and allowed Polestar to put as much glass as possible over the rear passengers.

The Vehicle

Speaking of that glass, Polestar didn’t simply want to tint the glass or leave it naked. Instead, the company added electrochroamatic glass that allows the driver to turn the glass from clear to opaque at the touch of a button on the center screen.

The massive panoramic roof glass stretches back behind the rear seat passengers and translates to a beautiful window into the outdoors. It’s perfect for for taking in the night sky or just staring up into the trees. When the sun starts beating down, it is easy to turn the glass opaque for a bit of protection from the sun or some privacy.

For the Polestar 4, they’ve upgraded the center display, opting for a 15.4″ landscape-oriented main display with a smaller 10.2″ display behind the steering wheel where the gauge cluster would traditionally live. Their design strategy for both displays was to use blocky tiles that makes it easy to interact with the tiles and make changes without having to take your eyes off of the road for very long.

They call the Polestar 4 a crossover, but it feels much more like a large sedan with a slightly higher stance. It’s signature design element is the elimination of the rear window, but Polestar didn’t simply want to sacrifice headroom by chopping the top. Instead, they opted to push the rear overhead support into what would normally be the rear window. That opened up more headroom in the rear seat but essentially eliminated the possibility of a rear window.

From a driving perspective, eliminating the rear window takes some getting used to, because you’re no longer able to see directly behind the vehicle. To help with this, they added a video option for the rear view mirror. A simple flip of the tab at the bottom of the mirror transforms it from a traditional mirror with limited visibility to a camera display. It’s completely functional, but the surface of the mirror is a bit reflective so it takes a bit of extra effort for your eyes to focus on the image instead of simply looking at the mirror like you normally would. [Editor’s note: I experienced these same issues recently with the Chevrolet Blazer EV SS. However, I got used to the difference after a day or so — my brain just adjusted somehow. The only remaining issue was that the camera view did not work well at night when a car was behind me — it basically blinded my view there. —Zach]

Inside the Polestar 4, we found the fabrics and design to be clean and modern. They love to boast about their “robotic” design aesthetic, and that carries through right to the inside of the vehicle. There are no natural tones or wood veneers to speak of, and the result is a look that’s modern and clean. To compensate, Polestar opted for soft-touch fabrics with a planetary themed palette. It’s comfortable and relaxing, providing a bit of peace amidst the chaos of the world.

In addition to the leather-like fabrics, Polestar offers a new “open mesh” fabric option in the Polestar 4 that feels like it’s right out of a performance sneaker lineup. This unique fabric is made from 89% recycled content and feels soft to the touch.

As a special bonus, the open weave of the fabric allowed Polestar to lay it over LED lighting for a unique ambient lighting effect inside the vehicle. They designed the fabric at a design studio in Borås, Sweden, where they were able to lay out each panel of the interior fabric for the vehicle. Custom building fabric for the car means less waste and no unnecessary trimming in the manufacturing process.

Behind the Wheel

The Polestar 4 is a beautiful car, but it’s best experienced sitting behind the wheel with some curvy roads in front of you. Polestar agreed and set us loose from downtown Austin with a route that took us out towards Lake Travis and back. It avoided highways where that was an option, opting instead for as many curvy two-lane roads as possible.

Now that you have your bearings in the car, it’s time to let it rip. We started off with the performance build of the Polestar 4, which is packing 400 kW/536 hp of power from its twin motors that’s set loose with the set of Pirelli P-Zero tires and massive Brembo brakes. It’s absolutely ready to cut loose and isn’t shy about reminding you.

There’s no shortage of power once you get used to the slight delay in acceleration when stomping on the pedal. It’s a safety feature meant to prevent any sudden unintended acceleration, which makes complete sense. The suspension can be tightened up from standard to nimble and firm, which lets you feel every single bump and nuance of the road.

It’s wide stance and grippy tires make curves a ton of fun. Though, the steering left me feeling a bit more disconnected from the road than I would like, even in the most aggressive setting. We talked to Polestar’s team about this and they said they are constantly making updates to the vehicle and this is something that could likely be addressed in a future software update. On that note, they have pushed out eight software updates in the last year, which is a solid cadence that speaks to their software competence.

The Software

Since its inception, Polestar has been a fan of Google’s automotive operating system, and that continues in the Polestar 4. They opted for a 15.4-inch landscape display, which feels much more natural in the vehicle and comes with a more streamlined implementation of Google’s automotive operating system.

Polestar has done a fantastic job laying out the majority of the vehicle’s buttons in a tiled format with a high-contrast black and orange theme that makes it easy to see at a glance what the settings are. This is absolutely critical when driving, as you don’t want to be fiddling around several layers deep in menus when each glance at the screen means time away from looking through the windshield.

The integrated Google maps are beautiful with Polestar’s custom dark skin, and can be sized to take up half the screen, ⅔ of the screen, or the full screen. All told, it’s one of the most solid and well integrated automotive infotainment experiences we’ve seen in years.

Overall

The Polestar 4 is a welcome addition to the Polestar family, slotting in somewhere between a midsize sports sedan and a low slung crossover, depending on who you ask. It’s a ton of fun to drive in any of the three variants and comes kitted out with just about all the technology a girl could want.

The Polestar 4 can serve equally well as a commuter, a family car during the week, with the extra ability to blow the lid off of things with the performance variant serving as a fun weekend canyon ripper. It definitely has a unique design aesthetic that is sure to appeal to a wide range of buyers.

Pricing starts at $56,400, with the more well-equipped variant topping out at right around $75,000. It’s a premium vehicle that brings an attractive blend of performance and handling that we haven’t seen on many electric vehicles to date, slotting in somewhere between the Tesla Model 3 Performance and the Lucid Air.

Head over to the official Polestar website for more information about the Polestar 4.