Polestar unveils Polestar 4, a $60K ‘SUV Coupé’ with no rear window

Polestar unveiled its upcoming Polestar 4, a small SUV that the company is calling an “SUV Coupé,” at the Shanghai Auto Show today.

The new Polestar 4 will be Polestar’s fastest car yet, capable of 0-60 in 3.8 seconds from 400kW (544hp) of motor power in dual-motor configuration. In single-motor configuration, you lose half that power (with a 0-60 time of 7.4), but get access to up to 300 miles’ worth of range from the 102kWh battery. Range and acceleration numbers are estimates.

On the dual motor version, the car will be able to “sleep” the front motor for greater efficiency in range mode, but will still take about a 10% range penalty, with a 270-mile estimated range.

All versions have maximum 200kW DC and 22kW AC charge rate, both of which are on the high end of modern electric vehicles. This DC charge rate will bring the battery from 5-80% in 32 minutes, and 22kW AC will charge the car from zero to full in five hours – if you have access to a 100 amp circuit at home (most don’t).

The Polestar 4 will have bidirectional V2L capabilities, though Polestar hasn’t yet shared what rate the car will be able to discharge at.

The new Polestar 4 sits in between its predecessors, the Polestar 2 and 3, in size. It’s 2-3 inches shorter in each dimension than the 3, and 2-3 inches taller and wider than the 2 (and 10(!) inches longer). Polestar is classifying it as a “D-segment SUV Coupé” in Europe. Dimensions are 4,839 mm L x 1,544 mm H x 2,139 mm W (191″ L x 61″ H x 82″ W) (incl. mirrors).

The nomenclature is a little weird here since it doesn’t track with the size of each vehicle, but Polestar is naming its cars sequentially – the first was the 1, the second is the 2, and so on.

Polestar has two more upcoming cars, the Polestar 5 based on its Precept concept, and the Polestar 6 Roadster based on its O₂concept. We recently got an up-close look at the Polestar 6 concept at the new Polestar Space in South Coast Plaza.

Thus far, Polestar has built its cars on platforms shared with Volvo, though the Polestar 4 diverts from that and is built on the SEA architecture from Geely. Polestar’s next cars will be built on their own architecture using bonded aluminum developed at their UK R&D facility.

This new Polestar 4 shares one interesting feature with the Polestar 5 concept: Both of them have no rear window. Instead, there’s a camera for rear view.

Polestar says that this camera enables greater rear visibility for the driver, since instead of looking through a small aperture of the rear window, the camera can offer a wide-angle view behind the car. The camera pipes video onto a screen where the rear-view mirror would normally be.

We’ve seen similar mirrors on other cars, like the Chevy Bolt, but generally they can be switched between a standard mirror and a backup camera, whereas the Polestar 4 eschews the mirror option entirely.

Polestar also says that this lack of a rear window enables “a new kind of immersive rear occupant experience.” It enables the glass roof to run further back, above the rear occupants’ heads, as Polestar can push structural components further back in the vehicle.

And the glass roof has an electrochromic option, which means it can be made transparent or opaque. Rear passengers will have control through a small screen mounted between the front seats.

As with Polestar’s other vehicles, the 4 uses its built-in Android Automotive OS with built-in Google functionality. This is more than just Android Auto, but a full in-car OS built by Google, and the car has over-the-air update functionality just like other Polestars have. But Apple users can still access Apple CarPlay in the car.

Polestar didn’t release full North American pricing details today, saying that those would come in 2024, with the car releasing later that year. It did say that the car will be somewhere in the range of $60K to start, though, if you’re looking to start saving up now.

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