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Polestar gets into proper luxury SUV territory while trying to stay sporty
There’s an interesting circularity to the way premium car makers are now revisiting and reinventing their electric luxury SUVs. It’s six or seven years – or about a full model cycle – since the Jaguar I-Pace, Audi E-tron and Mercedes EQC first gave buyers premium-branded electric options for their next family-sized SUV. The fresh meat those same buyers are being offered today – the Porsche Macan Electric, the Audi Q6 E-tron, the refreshed BMW iX and the subject of this test – represent the way EV technology has matured over that period as much by their variety as by their generational leaps on performance, efficiency, range and charging speed.The all-new Polestar 3 illustrates how very adeptly. Based on a model platform shared with the much larger and taller Volvo EX90, it shows that common underpinnings can spawn very different products. This five-seater luxury SUV also occupies a notional Rubicon for Polestar because it’s the largest passenger car its maker will offer for the foreseeable future.If the firm can successfully demonstrate the sort of progressive driver appeal here that it claims as a defining characteristic of its brand, then, we can probably believe it when it says its cars will never be dull to drive.