Polestar 3 Electric SUV With 600 Km Range Coming Soon

Polestar, the electric vehicle division of Volvo Cars, which itself is owned by Geely, has released the first official undisguised photo of the Polestar 3, a dual motor battery-electric SUV that will go into production simultaneously in both the US and China this fall. The first cars are expected to be delivered to customers early next year.

According to The Verge, the Polestar 3 will be manufactured at Volvo’s factory near Charleston, South Carolina, making it the first electric vehicle from either Polestar or Volvo built in the US. That factory currently builds the Volvo XC90, which will be offered in a battery-electric version when the next generation of that model goes into production in a year or so.

The company says the new electric SUV will have a range of 600 kilometers (373 miles) using the WLTP standard. No EPA range numbers are available as of yet, but expect that number to be 10% to 15% less than the WLTP figure. No pricing details have been announced.

The Polestar 3 will be built using the company’s latest Scalable Product Architecture, which will include “autonomous highway piloting powered by the best in class LiDAR sensor from Luminar and centralized NVIDIA computing power,” resulting in a partially autonomous driving system on certain limited access highways.

“Polestar 3 is the SUV for the electric age. Our design identity evolves with this high-end large luxury EV, with a strong, individual brand character. With this car, we bring the ‘sport’ back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots, ” says CEO Thomas Ingenlath.

According to The Verge, the company intends to introduce the Polestar 4 compact SUV in 2023 and the Polestar 5 sports sedan in 2024. The latter is a production version of the Precept Concept that my colleague Jo Borras told us about last year. It is also toying with the idea of an electric roadster code-named the 02. It plans to sell more cars than Porsche in more than 30 countries around the world.

There are reports the company may be split off as a separate entity via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company later this year, after which it will become a publicly traded company. Polestar will begin accepting orders for the Polestar 3 when it is officially revealed at a launch event in October.