► Polestar 5 launches at Munich show
► Slick, techy four-door arrives with mega power
► On sale in the UK priced from £89,500 for launch model
Polestar – seemingly masters of taking their sweet time – has finally unveiled the production version of the 5. It’s just made its public debut at the 2025 Munich motor show.
The look, at this point, isn’t much of a surprise. And yet, it still looks sharp and super cool. It’s the production result of the Precept concept, and it’s designed to tackle fellow electric four-door GTs like the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-Tron GT and Lotus Emeya. We’ve also driven a prototype of the 5, which you can read all about here.
‘The Precept was our manifesto car,’ says head of exterior design, Nahum Escobedo. ‘When you have such a response from the public, you start to wonder how you can make a car like this happen. From day one, we set out to deliver the concept car.’
The look, then, is familiarly Polestar but with a few new elements thrown in. ‘For this, we wanted to step away from the Thor’s Hammer headlights and create more of a dual blade, something that’s now become the face of the car,’ adds Escobedo. He also points to the new SmartZone that bundles all of the car’s radar, camera and sensor technology into one panel in the nose- much like the 3 and 4 SUVs.
‘At the rear, we tried to remove anything that was no longer needed, too,’ says Escobedo. So much so that, due to how the rear lights are designed, there’s no need for a rear wing. Spotted something yet? There’s no rear window. Like the 4, the 5 does without one and instead relies on a virtual rear-view mirror inside.
Speaking of that interior, the 5 is trimmed and tailored with a neat and tidy cockpit. It shares a good amount of tech and touchpoints as the 3 and 4 like the steering wheel, stalks and main central screen but has its own design vibe. It’s designed better as a four-seater, with the outer rear seats including plenty of electric adjustment. But the centre armrest that features climate and seat controls can be raised up for a fifth jump seat if needed.
Materials have been a major focus, with details like sustainable leather from Bridge of Weir being applied to the Recaro-designed seats, for example. Maria Uggla, head of colour, material and finish design, says that ‘everything we do should be deliberate inside. We always try to see if we can find a better way of producing a material with a lower emission output, if we can find a cleaner material or do something in a more sustainable way.
‘The whole of Polestar is full of nerds – it’s a paradise for nerds,’ smiles Uggla. ‘And we try to create interest by focusing on small details and nuances. We try to keep away the noise, keep away the bullsh*t.’
The Polestar 5 is the first car to use the Polestar Performance Architecture, with the 6 convertible still in the pipeline. The Polestar Performance Architecture, as it’s called, uses bonded aluminium, setting the 5 apart from cars like the 2, 3 and 4 which all use common Geely/Volvo architectures. Polestar says that means the car is ‘lightweight and rigid, and affords the 5 with torsional rigidity higher than that of a two-seat sports car or supercar.’
Two models launch first – Dual Motor and Performance. Both come with a huge 112kWh battery pack, and the car runs on an 800-volt architecture enabling up to 350kW charging speeds via fast DC chargers. Polestar claims a 416-mile WLTP range from the Dual Motor model, and 351 miles from the Performance version.
As for outright performance specs, there isn’t actually that much difference between the two versions. The Dual Motor model develops 737bhp and 599lb ft, good for a 3.9sec 0-62mph sprint. The Performance model, meanwhile, ups that to 871bhp and 749lb ft, dropping the launch time to 3.2sec. Polestar has developed the electric motor on the rear axle in-house (the front one is supplied by ZF), with much of the 5’s development work being done at Polestar’s UK base at MIRA.
‘We have an intellectual approach to performance,’ says Christian Samson, head of vehicle attributes. ‘Yes, the capability of the electric car and the performance is wild, but we wanted to make that available for everyone – even those who aren’t that skilled a driver. We wanted to make it accessible, not to scare people or bite their head off when they try to use it – if you can’t control it, then what’s the point?’
That’s why, as well as a sophisticated architecture, the Performance model includes some extra toys to handle the power. Larger wheels are standard, and you can swap out the standard Michelin Pilot Sport EV ones for Pilot Sport 5S rubber if you like. Performance models also benefit from semi-active MagneRide dampers and a specific chassis tuning the Dual Motor doesn’t get.
How much? Well, for the UK market, Polestar has confirmed UK pricing for ‘launch edition’ versions of both Dual Motor and Performance models. The Dual Motor launch edition model is priced at £89,500, with the Performance launch edition requiring £104,900. Those prices make the Polestar 5 generally less expensive than pretty much all of its major rivals – namely the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-Tron GT and Lotus Emeya.
Samson says that Polestar’s strategy is to be realistic. ‘To really build credibility over time as a performance brand, we need to always satisfy those people who enjoy driving a car – that’s fair enough. But we can’t simply rely on Porsche drivers suddenly thinking Porsche is a bad idea and them buying a Polestar instead. We’re trying to attract a broader audience.’
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist
