► Polestar 3 SUV: the CAR debrief
► New MY2026 update is a bit too good
► Three models available
Polestar has revealed new details of the MY26 3, and it appears to be the electric SUV they should’ve released from the very beginning. The headline change is a move to a new 800-volt architecture (following its EX90 sibling) but there have been a few other changes too.
‘The upgrades to Polestar 3 are so extensive, it’s like an entirely new car,’ said Michael Lohscheller, Polestar CEO. With this upgrade we continue to deliver on our commitment to add value for our customers through over-the-air software and hardware updates. The already amazing Polestar 3 is now better than ever.’
It’s good news for prospective buyers and awful news for early adopters: the new Polestar 3 gets a brand new 800-volt electrical system. That means handsome increases in both efficacy and power. Charging now has a peak rate of 350kW which means battery charging from 10 to 80% takes 22 minutes – that’s 25% faster than before.
At the same time, the range is up 6%. The architecture can take new lithium-ion battery packs from CATL: a 92kWh battery pack for the rear motor version and then a 106kWh unit for the dual-motor and Performance trims.
The rear motor has been upgraded too, which means the car has more rear bias than before for better driving engagement. IT also means power is up to 670bhp in the top dog, Performance trim.
And you couldn’t really blame them, can you? Still, they are entitled to something. The new car is getting a bump in processing power, thanks to the introduction Nvidia’s Orin processors. They replace the existing Xavier units and increaser computing power from 30 to 254 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This upgrade is complimentary from Polestar – which is nice – but it pales in comparison to a shiny new 800-volt system doesn’t it?
The entire model range has been simplified to rear motor, dual motor and performance with the former getting a different battery and the two top end models getting the air suspension. You’ll be able to tell which trim is which via the seatbelts: the rear motor gets solid black, the dual a yellow stripe while the performance gets full gold.
The packs are the same as before and there’s one additional colour: a new Storm dark grey metallic. The new range will start at £69,990 for the Rear motor version and you can see the full line up below.
Short for ‘Beast’ and originally given to a one-off Polestar 2 for CEO Thomas Ingenlath, the BST package made it to series production on the saloon and the uptake surprised Polestar. Two series of BST-spec Polestar 2s have been produced and sold (accounting for 270 and 230 sales), and CAR understands the suits in Gothenberg are now weighing up a similarly bonkers version of the more practical (but still powerful) Polestar 3.
You only have to look at the mythical status of similarly silly cars such as the Volvo T5 R – a distant ancestor of the Polestar 3 – to see why this could work. Or, if you prefer something more contemporary, Hyundai’s decision to release an Ioniq 5 N, also shown at Goodwood. There appears to be a strong market for incredibly quick but practical electric SUVs, and the Polestar brand could cash in with a 3 BST.
The Polestar 3 BST hasn’t been confirmed, let alone the specs, but we can look towards the Polestar 2 BST for an idea of what to expect. Polestar engineers tweaked the car’s handling, fitting new Öhlins two-way adjustable dampers, an aluminium strut bar and also added software-based performance upgrades.
Nice work, if you can get it, but we suspect that cheaper, less powerful models will move the needle further.
Curtis Moldrich is CAR magazine’s Digital Editor and has worked for the brand for the past five years. He’s responsible for online strategy, including CAR’s website, social media channels such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, and helps on wider platform strategy as CAR magazine branches out on to Apple News+ and more.
By Curtis Moldrich
CAR's Digital Editor, F1 and sim-racing enthusiast. Partial to clever tech and sports bikes