Until the highly anticipated Polestar 5 arrives later this year, the 4 reigns at the top of the Volvo spinoff EV company’s lineup. This performance-oriented crossover with dual-motor all-wheel drive and 280 miles of range began international production as far back as 2023, but now arrives for model year 2026 here in the United States. Stylistically perfect, the 4 straddles a line between sporty and simple, with a healthy dose of futuristic Scandinavian minimalism plus some subtly muscular proportions reminiscent of the Ferrari Purosanguge.
But that futuristic minimalism critically hits the market with one enormously controversial design detail: the complete elimination of a rear window. Polestar claims this allows for more headroom in the luxuriously spacious rear seats, but this bold stylistic choice truly begs the question of whether one single design decision can entirely detract from everything great about the 4.
Admittedly, the lack of a rear window dominated my attention when I first drove the 4 at its international launch in Madrid nearly two years ago – though less so last winter during a full day of sideways ice drifting on a frozen lake above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. But now that the 4 has hit dealer floors here in America, I took a loaner for a week of daily driving in West Los Angeles, eager to learn whether more time might give me a chance to adjust to the Polestar 4 and that blocked-off rear end.
Polestar builds the 4 on a chassis shared with the Chinese conglomerate Geely, in contrast to the 3 that is more directly related to its Volvo siblings. The 4 therefore sits 3.7 inches lower than that larger, more traditionally designed crossover alternative in the lineup, preventing too much direct competition between the two models. In this case, my Long range Dual motor 4 arrived fully specced with the Pilot, Plus, and Performance packs. The Performance pack in particular emphasizes handling, braking, and style with retuned suspension, 22-inch wheels over Brembo brake calipers finished in gold paint, and both gold seatbelts and valve stem caps to match.
If gold seems anathema to Scandinavian minimalism, in fact the aesthetic actually complements the stellar interior and exterior design well. I love Polestar’s colors and textures in general, and especially my loaner’s lightly metallic “Electron” blue paintjob and pale white “Zinc” Nappa leather inside. But unlike the 2 and 3 before it, the 4’s Performance pack does not add any extra power as part of the $4,500 option. That means the same pair of 200-kilowatt front and rear motors combine for peak ratings 544 horsepower and 506 lb-ft of torque, which Polestars claims results in a 0-60 time of just 3.7 seconds.
Punching the 4’s go pedal brings on the brutal gut-punch of torque typical from high-performance EVs. Without exaggeration, the acceleration almost borders on absurd, whipping this four-door up to highway speeds – and well beyond – in the blink of an eye. And yet, the Performance pack’s chassis tuning and larger wheels prioritize handling more than anything else.
Such a lowslung design with 6.5 inches of ground clearance contributes to the impression that surely, this EV that whips around so easily simply cannot weigh more than 5,000 pounds. Of course, the 100 kilowatt-hours of batteries account for most of that mass. Polestar’s somewhat anesthetized steering helps to reinforce the mild resistance to cornering, allowing the 4 to absolutely rip through traffic or up tight canyons at borderline unbelievable pace.
And despite the sporty aspiration, interior spaciousness does stand out as one of the 4’s greatest attributes. At six-foot-one with long limbs, I never even scooted the driver seat all the way back. And even if I had, I still would have never impinged on rear seat legroom – clearly, that rear window, or lack thereof, comes into play.
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The whole point of deleting the back window, as Polestar justifies the decision, was to scoot the roof’s internal safety bracing rearward and thereby improve second-row headroom. The second row seats do fit full-grown adults comfortably, and all without sacrificing too much trunk cargo volume behind the seats, either. But from the outside, looking at the outline of the blank panel where a window should be does somewhat defeat the purpose – somewhat ironically, various sensors for the safety equipment made necessary by deleting the rear window now exist there, so Polestar cannot reinstall a window retroactively.
Really, in a car this quick, I never check the rear view all too often anyhow! And at this point, after years driving supercars and large pickup trucks, I’ve adjusted to digital rearview mirror systems. Polestar pairs the main rearview mirror camera with multiple other angles that activate in reverse or when using the turn signals, to help compensate for the massive blind spot. It’s still not nearly as great as clear glass, but not too terrible. Instead, most of my doubletakes happened while negotiating LA’s tough traffic, when I might glance over the shoulder before a quick lane change and my brain balked at the dark area in my peripheral vision.
I needed to learn to trust the tech, and Polestar employs redundancies in the system, a quintessentially Volvo level of safety engineering. However, a few other critical decisions that Polestar made for the 4 attempt to unnecessarily reinvent the technological wheel, as well. Mainly, I learned the key. A small black rectangle, the key has zero buttons. Like many modern cars, the default setting should recognize whenever the key comes into proximity of the car, then unlock the doors and extend the retracting handles. But mine worked maybe half the time, with no backup plan (in the form of buttons) available other than to pull the key out of my pocket and wave it near a dedicated place on the B-pillar for a while.
Again, I needed to trust the tech. Or more accurately, in this case, download Apple CarKey to my iPhone to enable a better way of locking and unlocking the 4. Apple CarPlay, on the other hand, connected only about half the time too. Luckily, Polestar’s large 15.4-inch central touchscreen functions with Google apps in reasonable fashion. I saved my seating position preferences in the memory settings, configured shortcuts in the home page, and also flipped the 10.2-inch gauge cluster to show navigation – a critical choice because the 360-degree surround camera views popped up whenever I used the turn signals, blocking any directions I might be relying upon in the center screen.
My most commonly accessed menu page? The drive settings, where Polestar allows for extensive selection of various characteristics that entirely adjust the 4’s power delivery and handling capability. I played around extensively, trying to find the best combinations for both daily comfort and more aggressive canyon carving. For city life, I wound up preferring the lightest steering, softest suspension, full one-pedal regenerative braking, and max range—perhaps as expected. But even for my sporty combo, after setting the power to full bore, I still kept the steering in the lightest mode, with the suspension then in the most taut configuration. This helped to emphasize nimbleness, counteracting the direct impression of EV mass that dulled the finer edges with the steering set to firm.
The whole time, I kept one-pedal regen on and creep set to off, if only to maximize range because the 4 Dual motor does only get an EPA estimate of 280 miles. That’s entirely sufficient for city life and occasional weekend fun, even if a bit shy of the Tesla Model Y Long Range that many potential Polestar 4 buyers will no doubt cross shop against. Over the course of my week, I can report the onboard range estimate appeared very generous, even if I avoided one longer drive to San Diego and back just to skip out on potentially needing to stop and charge. So, I never tested the claimed 10-80% charge time of 30 minutes, in full disclosure. And as always, I only recommend an EV purchase to anyone who can rely on charging at home or at work, instead of depending upon inconsistent public infrastructure.
When the halo Polestar 5 arrives later this year, both power and range will improve significantly thanks to an 800-volt architecture replacing the 4’s 400-volt system. The 5 will therefore compete more reasonably with the upper end of the Lucid Air models, which means expected pricing well into six figures. By contrast, my 4 with every option box checked ran up to $80,800 over a $62,900 base MSRP for the Dual motor layout and the no-cost Pilot pack. My Plus pack added $5,500 for excellent massaging front and reclining rear seats, three-zone climate, a power tailgate, and more, in addition to the Performance pack.
I’d also highly recommend the optional electrochromatic tinting roof glass ($1,500), which can darken at the touch of a button, as an absolute must-have for any EV that eats into range by using the air conditioning. As a theme, Polestar clearly believes in the power of technology such as this to help owners adjust to the EV lifestyle. So, for now, even if the larger 3 stands out as the workhorse in the lineup, anyone accustomed to cutting-edge tech or supercar performance will likely enjoy the 4 most out of Polestar’s steadily growing electric lineup.
Images: Michael Van Runkle
