- Polestar’s subsequent new automobile would be the 5 electrical sedan
- Polestar has the Mannequin S in its sights—and likewise, the Lucid Air
- Engineered within the U.Okay., the 5 has a bonded-aluminum physique like these from Jaguar
“We’re 80 p.c carried out, however there’s extra to do,” stated Polestar’s Chris Baguley as he tossed a Polestar 5 improvement prototype via a set of cones at rising speeds. Baguley, the principal engineer for automobile dynamics, spends many hours every week thrashing prototypes of the electrical efficiency sedan round check tracks. The aim is to dial within the suspension tuning that separate a fascinating premium efficiency automobile from a pedestrian mass-market mannequin.
From the roomy rear seat, regardless of the automobile’s in-process inside, it was arduous to discern what that remaining 20 p.c would possibly require. Baguley stated the 2026 Polestar 5 is tuned to understeer barely as drivers approached its limits, the predictable, anticipated conduct in automobiles nowadays. From the again, I couldn’t sense the understeer he felt via the steering wheel. As an alternative, I heard the rear tires beginning to squeal as the road across the cones tightened.
Driving shotgun, I felt the understeer a contact extra. Its compact entrance suspension offers the 5 a sports-car really feel, we later realized, whereas the taller rear suspension towers contribute to rear-seat consolation. Total, in our transient 20 minutes on the course, the automobile appeared as if it is perhaps viable competitors for the handful of high-dollar EV efficiency sedans. Whether or not it could match the rocket-like acceleration of a Lucid Air Sapphire or the excellent, intuitive dealing with of a Porsche Taycan stays to be seen as soon as manufacturing automobiles emerge subsequent yr.
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Future Polestar plans, lastly
With the 2025 Polestar 3 SUV now in early manufacturing at a shared Volvo-Polestar plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, and the 2025 Polestar 4 fastback coupe-crossover following shut behind (initially from China, however from South Korea subsequent yr), the Swedish startup owned by China’s Geely can lastly speak about its future plans.
The Polestar 2 that launched the model to the U.S. public has been its sole quantity entry since 2021. With regular refinements which have made it extra aggressive and alluring—together with a change this yr from front- to rear-wheel drive for its single-motor fashions—that compact utility EV has transcended the platform it shares with two small Volvos, which embrace each battery-electric and internal-combustion variants.
The brand new 2025 Polestar 3 SUV is later than to market than deliberate, attributable to software program bugs shared with its platform mate the 2025 Volvo EX90 electrical three-row crossover. Now that the three is coming to market, with the Polestar 4 on its heels, the model was keen to point out off its R&D functionality to a small group of auto journalists.
That’s how we discovered ourselves being tossed round within the subsequent Polestar on a dealing with course arrange on an enormous parking zone outdoors Coventry, within the West Midlands area of England—the middle of what stays of the nation’s auto {industry}. The corporate’s objectives have been to underscore the energy of its U.Okay. improvement workforce, showcase its present and new, expanded R&D amenities, and to supply a restricted have a look at the way it’s creating the Polestar 5—which rides on Polestar’s first devoted structure. The two, 3, and 4 share underpinnings with numerous Volvo and Geely fashions, however the Polestar 5’s bonded-aluminium construction will probably be distinctive to that automobile when it launches.
Requested if it will stay so, or whether or not different Volvo or Geely merchandise would find yourself utilizing it as effectively, CEO Thomas Ingenlath hedged elegantly. “We’re glad to make different individuals within the [Geely] group glad,” he stated. “It could be egocentric to maintain it for ourselves.” Translation: Yeah, you’ll see it below future Volvos and doubtless different Geely manufacturers as effectively.
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5: Bonded physique, constructed from aluminum
Our small group of reporters spent components of two days touring Polestar’s R&D amenities within the U.Okay. First have been its present premises at MIRA, a collaborative middle for automotive improvement because it was based in 1946. The subsequent day we visited a much-expanded website into which Polestar was nonetheless transferring. It has greater than twice the sq. footage, that means employees will spend far much less time enjoying Jenga with improvement automobiles moved and parked amongst restricted check stations.
Our excursions have been performed by Steve Swift, director of auto engineering, and Pete Allen, deputy CTO and head of R&D within the U.Okay. Like many employees there, each males had labored on a exceptional number of automobiles over their careers, from Components 1 to premium manufacturers after which some—together with the plug-in hybrid London taxi. Because it turned out, Swift had been a part of the Lotus workforce that tuned the suspension of my 1991 Isuzu Impulse, a automobile so obscure many auto-industry colleagues don’t realize it. Consider the Polestar workforce as engineers of all trades, builders who can convey a automobile from conception to actuality…no matter its background.
Each males, and automobile dynamics engineer Baguley as effectively, have been pretty open and direct in answering an onslaught of questions from our group. That stated, the images on this article have been taken by the corporate and are the one ones allowed—stickers lined the lenses of our telephones, laptops, and cameras to stop any unauthorized photographs.
Polestar’s new facility features a big oven, giant sufficient to suit a whole automobile. It’s used to treatment the bonded-aluminium construction of Polestar 5 prototypes to attain most energy. Our hosts declined to touch upon both the make-up of the epoxy adhesive or the temperatures at which it’s cured; there’s a variety of mental property in that knowledge they don’t care to share.
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5, from Principle to manufacturing
The prevailing and new prototype amenities are there for a single goal: to develop what was unveiled in April 2020 because the Polestar Principle idea right into a viable manufacturing automobile, and to make sure it meets its design specs and performs adequately earlier than it transitions into manufacturing at a purpose-built manufacturing facility in Chongqing, China.
The event workforce is especially pleased with having the ability to maintain the low nostril and cowl peak of the Principle idea—requiring a entrance suspension design significantly compact in its vertical dimension, with solely 160 mm (6.3 inches) of front-wheel journey from absolutely prolonged to bump cease. That low nostril not solely aids in decreasing aerodynamic drag, however offers the Polestar 5 its distinctive sport-sedan look—placing it within the firm of its desired opponents, the Porsche Panamera and Taycan and the Tesla Mannequin S.
The Chongqing plant may even produce the 2026 Polestar 6 two-seat open sports activities automobile, about which the execs stated virtually nothing in any respect past acknowledging its existence. Just one nugget concerning the 6 emerged: By eradicating the “foot storage” within the 5’s battery pack that offers rear-seat riders a extra pure seating place (that means not so knees-up), the identical battery capability can be utilized for a automobile with a shorter wheelbase, that means the 6. As soon as the underlying construction has been confirmed within the 5, that future mannequin and others must also take far much less time to develop.
The Polestar workforce stayed mum concerning the batteries used within the 5, their cells, their chemistry, and another specs. They acknowledged its capability was “111-ish kilowatt-hours,” and that it will cost at 800 volts, however in any other case, “we’re not prepared to speak about that but” was the chorus.
A phrase that cropped up greater than as soon as to explain Polestar was “pure progressive efficiency”. Whereas Porsche’s Panamera is hardly a progressive design, particularly given its combustion engine, it sits proper on the coronary heart of the market Polestar needs to enter with the 5.
Polestar 5 prototype trip
Polestar 5: Tesla Mannequin S, sure—but in addition Lucid Air?
Again and again, CEO Ingenlath harassed that Polestar is a Swedish firm that develops European automobiles there and within the U.Okay. for the world. The 2026 Polestar 5’s dealing with will probably be tighter, extra managed, and extra exact (“extra European”) than, as an example, a automobile just like the Lucid Air—whose roadholding and suspension conduct are “fairly American, don’t you suppose?”
Polestar is, nevertheless, largely managed by Chinese language maker Geely, as is its sibling Volvo. Whereas the two and 4 are in-built China, export variations of the latter will transfer to a plant in South Korea subsequent yr. That’s a results of the model intentionally diversifying its world manufacturing footprint in response to rising commerce tensions between China and each the European Union and the U.S.
Polestar remains to be an unknown model to the overwhelming majority of American automobile consumers, even many EV advocates and house owners. That ought to begin to shift as soon as the three SUV debuts, launching into the guts of the U.S. SUV market. As for the 4, it stays to be seen how even tech-forward EV adopters will take to a utility automobile that has no rear window—solely rear-view cameras.
That’s the case for the 2026 Polestar 5, too. The our bodies in white have a big structural crossmember passing via the house you’d count on to deal with a rear window. Reaching a pure fastback form is the explanation, stated execs: the glass roof panel merely extends to the highest of the trunk lid.
Just like the model itself, and the long run prospects of Sino-Scandinavian electrical automobiles in North America, the market will in the end render its verdict on that innovation. In the meantime, its U.Okay. R&D amenities are ramping up for what is going to possible be many extra Polestar fashions. We stay up for driving them in real-world situations.
Polestar offered airfare, lodging, meals, and loads of drive time in RHD Polestar 2s to allow Motor Authority to convey you this first-person report.
