Polestar 4 2025 Standout: Great handling and a small carbon footprint

“If you’re going to make a car and use all that energy, it has to be a good car,” said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. Ingenlath was referring to the company’s latest electric vehicle, a mid-size SUV stunning looking coupe called the Polestar 4. While Ingenlath is on point from a durability standpoint, it also makes good business sense The Polestar 4 should be a good car to stand out as it enters one of the most contested segments of the market.

In fact, Polestar uses less energy to make its latest EV than anything else in its range – the company quotes a carbon footprint of 19.9 tonnes of CO₂ from the cradle to the gate. Like some other automakers, Polestar is taking a monomaterial approach to the interior to make recycling easier, choosing the same plastic base for all components in a particular piece of trim, for example.

Carpets are made from, in various ways, recycled fishing nets or plastic bottles. The vinyl seats use pine oil instead of materials extracted from the earth, and the woven upholstery fabric – also recycled plastic bottles – was designed to leave no cuts.

The fastest Polestar ever

In addition to being the greenest Polestar yet, this is also the best performer. We tested the long-range twin-motor version, which can send up to 536 hp (400 kW) and 506 lb-ft (686 Nm) to the wheels. Choose this version and you’ll see 270 miles (434 km) from the 100 kWh battery pack. In a place suitable as a toll booth on the motorway, 60 mph is reached in 3.7 seconds (100 km/h in 3.8).

That is if you’re in performance mode, at least. Switch to range mode and the clutch disengages the front permanent magnet synchronous motor and reshapes the throttle pedal for better efficiency. There is also a heat pump as standard. The car can fast DC charge at speeds of up to 200 kW, which will take the battery pack from 10 to 80 percent state of charge in 30 minutes. At home with an 11 kW AC charger, 0–100 percent SoC should take about 11 hours.

There’s also a long-range single-engine variant with exactly half the power and torque, but an EPA range of 300 miles (482 km). Driven only by its rear wheels, the Polestar 4 has more modest performance—60 mph comes in 6.9 seconds, 100 km/h in 7.1—but it’s also priced $10,000 cheaper, starting at $64,900. New tariffs on electric vehicles made in China are to blame for the increase, but Polestar told Ars it will honor the original price for customers who had already placed orders. Next year, production of US-market Polestar 4s will begin in South Korea, which means significantly lower import duties.

It’s surprisingly good to drive

It must be said: Making an electric car go fast isn’t particularly difficult. Electric motors generate most of their torque almost instantly, and unlike a combustion engine, if you increase peak power, there isn’t really a lower efficiency hit in the performance hood. So even a 3-tonne monster can be thrown down the road fast enough to put many supercars to shame.

The Polestar 4 isn’t that heavy – 5,192 lbs (2,355 kg) – so it forgoes air suspension in favor of conventional springs and dampers. These are passive on the single-engine, but the twin-engine is fitted with active dampers as standard, and if you opt for the Performance Pack, it’s upgraded with stiffer springs and anti-roll bars and new damper tuning.

Our test car was so equipped and it was a noticeably firm ride, especially when we sat in the back. There was also some wind noise at speed, but more tire noise, presumably thanks to the Performance Package’s 22-inch wheels.