Many things don’t like the depths of a Midwestern winter: snow birds, orange groves, my dog. The 2025 Polestar 3 might be another one, more so than other electric vehicles. To be fair, no EV benefits from subzero temperatures and windchills in the -20 degree range. The two-inch dusting of snow only made it look one degree more pleasant. Nothing really benefits from such temps except for utility bills and streaming services.
Unlike southern climes, we hearty Midwestern types go about our business in such cold snaps, as stubborn or stupid as you please. They call it character building—even the schools stayed as open as the cold faucets, and the attendance/attendant drip kept our pipes and sense of normalcy from bursting. The sexy electric crossover ventured out with me, because even EV owners bristle at having to use a second car for everyday living.
2025 Polestar 3 production at Volvo plant near Charleston, South Carolina – Aug. 2024
Sharing a platform and other bits with the Volvo EX90 three-row electric crossover, the latest and most important offering from Volvo’s cousin looks nothing like a Volvo. The five-seater stands out from other low-slung wagon-like electric crossovers, even homogenized with a skin of ashy road salt. The long nose drops off a steep vertical face that’s cut with an inverted wing with three open slots that directs air over and around the hood and raked windshield, same as in the Dodge Charger Daytona EV. At the rear, air curtains and an integrated roof spoiler pull down air and turbulence. It looks great, and the smooth profile mimics the fuselage of an airplane; on 21-inch wheels with all-season tires it looks like a carver of both road and space.
This alluring blend of sport and utility has a high rear end that opens up to a boxy cargo area and a cabin that can comfortably seat five. We folded down the 60:40-split rear seats and fit goalie sticks, a hockey goalie bag, and other sundry gear without any of the squish and push and pull that accompanies other crossovers. If not for the sticks, we could have fit bag, backpacks, and cooler without folding down the seats
This smart packaging includes a 111-kwh battery pack (107 kwh usable) in the floor, and a 180-kw motor powering either axle. The standard all-wheel drive added some extra grip, abetted by a dual-clutch torque-vectoring system, and the 5,868-pound curb weight kept the crossover planted even in icy conditions. I hardly got to test the Polestar 3’s best attribute in its handling prowess, but I savored a taste of the 489 hp and 620 lb-ft of torque produced by the two motors. In cleaner conditions, it can go from 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds, which isn’t all that quick by performance EV standards. The optional Performance Pack turns it up to 517 hp and 671 lb-ft, and lowers the 0-60 mph time to 4.5 seconds. A light and responsive throttle provided the sudden bursts expected from such output, but most of my driving conditions required chill over thrill.
I paid more attention to the range metrics. In ideal temps, the 3 has an estimated range of 315 miles. But the small gauge cluster (9.0 inches across) showed 53% of battery capacity remaining with an estimated range of 100 miles. The heat was on high and my seat warmer was on. The Polestar 3 lost 40% of its capable range due to the temps, and that’s in spite of its heat pump running the HVAC. On average, EVs lose 20% of capacity in freezing temperatures.
The cold was extreme so I wouldn’t expect a 40% loss if the temps were in the 20s, for instance. Still, cold range anxiety would be real for the long commute.
Regardless, the range estimator felt imprecise, unlike Rivian’s and Tesla’s. It was ballparking in a world of precise data, and contrasted with the excellent graphics provided by Google built-in it left me with an inconsistent, unsettling feel.
Much like the gorgeous exterior, the spartan interior chalks up another win for the Polestar 3, even if it feels like a Volvo EV. The 9.0-inch digital instrument cluster sits atop the steering column. It houses the basics: speed, range, drive modes, and active driver-assist functions with graphics that mirror the outlines of other nearby vehicles on the road. It opens up the windshield and keeps the focus out there instead of in here, for the most part. I appreciated its simplicity and sophistication.
Beside it is a 14.5-inch table-style touchscreen that houses nearly every vehicle function, from side-mirror adjustments to opening the hatch. The climate controls reside in the bottom of the screen. I still prefer buttons or dials, but Polestar makes the argument for a clean open dash dressed in open pore ash wood that conceals a thin band of vents. It’s understated and striking, how luxury appointments should be. The only button is a volume knob in the console, and the only lever aside from the door handles is to open the frunk, way down hidden from view by the driver’s shin.
The wintry mix outside mixed some of the sophisticated signals of the interior. Spray from the heated wiper blades proved to be a nice touch, especially given the conditions, but all that toxic road salt required frequent spritzing. Pushing the rear spritzer on the stalk cleaned the rear window as expected, but then the rear wiper remained on until I parked and walked away from the car, since there’s no button to actually turn off the car. Twisting the dial that controls the front wiper controls did nothing, except freak out the front wipers. I couldn’t figure out how to deactivate the rear wiper.
A bigger oddity was the rear seat alarm. With the rear seats still down, a passenger got in the front seat. It set off the unbelted seat alarm…for the back seats. She got out, the dinging stopped. Hours later, she got back in the front passenger seat, the dinging started until she got out again.
In the parking lots or backing out of driveways at slow speeds, there were several inadvertent hard braking events from the automatic emergency braking system, with nothing nearby. I chalked it up to the sensors being gunked up with road salt and winter sludge. Or maybe all of these quibbles were unique to a press car that hadn’t had much real world testing.
I know all too well that nothing, human or machine, runs as expected in such cold. It felt like the Polestar 3 was telling me to stay home. The wireless phone charger wasn’t activated, but a quick scan through the owner’s manual housed in the touchscreen helped me resolve that and other curiosities, such as how open the frunk. Owners wouldn’t have to deal with most of this, and certainly would use the digital key in their phone instead of the pesky card that requires placement on the wireless phone charger to start the car.
There’s a lot more to love about the Polestar 3 than a few days of subzero Chicago winter, but the $80,300 Launch Edition price is not one of them. Still, I look forward to revisiting its performance attributes after the thaw. Until then, my excitement for this sexy addition to an increasingly crowded EV crossover class is on ice.