Electric car: Polestar 3 luxury SUV with up to 380 kW and Level 3 autonomy

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Polestar has set itself the goal of selling ten times as many vehicles worldwide within the next three years as it did in 2021 and will launch various new cars to achieve this. The high-priced and rather luxuriously positioned Polestar 3 can at least play a supporting role in this and will be launched in China, the USA and Europe from the beginning of 2023.

With the Polestar 3, Polestar announces another SUV model. After a first picture in June, Polestar today shows a rear view of the car. With a "Performance Package" at extra cost, the electric car is supposed to develop a maximum power of 380 kW and a torque of up to 910 Nm. The manufacturer will hopefully reveal the values for the underlying model (and much more) when the Polestar 3 is unveiled on 12 October 2022 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Given an estimated range of over 600 kilometres, a larger battery than that of the Polestar 2 with its 78 kWh is to be expected.

All Polestar 3 models get, as far as we can understand, all-wheel drive, in which the rear engine can regulate the torque on the rear axle as required via an electronically controlled clutch in front of each drive shaft to the wheel. At least, this is how we interpret the statement in the press release, the literal content of which we do not want to withhold from you. According to it, "all variants feature a rear-wheel-drive, twin-motor drivetrain with electric torque vectoring via a dual-clutch system on the rear electric motor". What a tidbit. Strictly speaking, this sentence does not even reveal whether the car is to have all-wheel drive.

Adaptive drive and chassis

Like the forces of the drive, the spring stiffness (and possibly also its height) are also regulated according to need. For this purpose, the Chinese manufacturer uses a dual-chamber air suspension. Adjustable in their damping characteristics, the shock absorbers are automatically adjusted in their damping effect to the road conditions every two milliseconds (500 Hz). They also allow the driver to choose between "comfortable and firm suspension dynamics".

Polestar also hints at a lavish array of assistance and infotainment systems that can draw on "centralised NVIDIA computing power". The Android Automotive software platform will continue to be used. The safety systems familiar from Volvo Cars have been announced. Polestar relies on sensors from "leading industry suppliers, including Zenseact, Luminar and Smart Eye" for assistance and safety. With their help, the Polestar 3 is supposed to be able to drive highly automated at Level 3, but the manufacturer does not yet say how much of this will already be available at market launch.

(fpi)