► New electric Polestar 5 due 2024
► A Taycan and e-Tron GT rival
► 800v tech, 872bhp/664lb ft
Polestar has shown a production-spec version of its 5 four-door at its massive Polestar Day event in Los Angeles.
The undisguised car sat among Polestar’s entire rung of current and future production cars at the brand’s own event, where it announced a treasure trove of updates on its plans for the future. Chief among which was this completely uncamo’d version of the Polestar 5 (pictured below alongside the 6 convertible).
At the Polestar Day event, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath announced that the Polestar 5 would benefit from a new battery pack from StoreDot, which is capable of extreme fast charging.
Storedot is a battery company that’s been hard at work developing the latest in battery chemistries, including solid state cells in the future. The battery pack under the floor of the Polestar 5 feature’s StoreDot’s pouch cell design, and claims that the battery pack can give 100 miles of range in just five minutes. ‘StoreDot is making huge strides forward in the development of their extreme fast charging technology,’ says Ingenlath. ‘Combined with our upcoming top-of-the-line electric powertrain, it can revolutionise the ownership experience for EV owners.’
This comes around six months after Polestar slung 5 prototypes up the hill at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
‘We love showing our latest prototypes to the public at Goodwood. With production now starting in the first quarter of 2024, it’s time for Polestar 3 to take its first-ever run up the famous Hill,’ said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO during the Festival. ‘The SUV for the electric age looks fantastic and will be an exceptional car to own. The latest Polestar 5 verification prototype is here, too. Developed in the UK, Goodwood is like home turf for our electric 4-door GT.’
Where will it fit in?
With new models launching annually, by 2024 the Polestar electric car range will look something like this:
Polestar 5: the lowdown
The Polestar 5, due in showrooms later in 2024, closely follows the template set by the Precept concept car of 2020. It’s a four-door GT grand tourer, although the final production bodywork remains hidden under the cladding of the prototype driven up the Goodwood hill.
It’s a Scandi alternative to the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-Tron GT set of fast four-door electric GTs and the latest in a line of box-fresh Polestar models suddenly being shown.
Of more interest is the aluminium intensive architecture underpinning the 5. It’s the first fruits of Polestar’s new R&D base in the UK at the MIRA research facility in the Midlands, where a lightweight bonded platform is being developed to power top-end models. It’s the same technology deployed by the likes of Aston Martin and inhouse Geely siblings Lotus and taxi firm LEVC, explaining why Polestar has based its second engineering facility in the UK to tap into that low-volume, high-tech expertise already existing in Ansty near Coventry.
Whereas the 2, 3 and 4 models will share Volvo and Geely platforms, the 5 and further low-volume spin-offs will be based around the exceptionally stiff structure developed by a team led by Pete Allen, head of Polestar UK R&D and the engineering brains behind the Mercedes-McLaren SLR. He said: ‘The platform combines low-volume performance car attributes with modern technological advances to bring lightweight, high-rigidity sports car chassis technology into mass production.’
This bonded and riveted aluminium architecture is designed to be super-flexible, allowing a family of spin-offs to be deployed from the same hardware – paving the way for the O2 concept roadster to join the 5 as an open-top sports convertible. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Polestar beat Tesla to launch the world’s first EV soft-top?
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What’ll the production Polestar 5 look like?
Given we’ve caught a glimpse of the real thing, we’re now certain that the 2024 Polestar 5 will look very similar to the Precept show car, according to head of design Maximillian Missoni. ‘Polestars should have control and precision, but also emotion,’ he told CAR magazine.
Read more about the Polestar Precept concept here
Don’t expect a conventional grille, but there will be a so-called SmartZone around where a bumper would be – creating an area to house all the safety sensors and driver assistance tech. And the car at Goodwood rolls on giant 21-inch alloy wheels for a purposeful stance, brakes big enough to haul off the speed promised by 872bhp of punch and a large contact patch for grippy handling.
No word yet on performance figures, but with an electric motor at each axle and a stout 664lb ft of combined torque, it’s surely going to be nipping at the heels of supercars. Just silently…
Polestar: everything you need to know