The Polestar 4 — a name that tells you it is the fourth Polestar model released, in release order, which is not a hierarchy or a size or a price guide, just a number — is classified by its maker as an SUV coupe. It has four doors. It has a sloping roofline. It sits 60 inches tall, which is two inches taller than a Toyota Camry and three inches shorter than the Polestar 3, which is demonstrably an SUV. Doug DeMuro, who reviewed the car at length, put it plainly: it is a sedan. A tall sedan, with no back window. Polestar markets it as an SUV because SUVs are what people buy, which is commercially rational but strictly incorrect.
The rear window decision has a genuine engineering rationale behind it, which makes it slightly less eccentric than it initially appears. By replacing the glass with a camera system feeding a digital rearview mirror, Polestar’s designers were able to pull the rear seat further back, maximising interior space in a car of this footprint, and maintain the sloping coupe roofline without reducing rear headroom to something embarrassing. The payoff is a back seat that is genuinely generous for a car of this size — Doug notes you can sit comfortably behind a tall front-seat occupant — and proportions that look considerably more purposeful than the soft-edged crossovers it is competing against.
The trade-off is that you are now looking at a screen when you check your mirrors, which requires your eyes to refocus from road distance to close distance every time you glance at it. In good conditions, most reviewers report you get used to this relatively quickly. In rain or at night, there is glare; at night, the camera view can blur in wet conditions, and a strip of ambient lighting mounted near the digital mirror reflects distractingly into the display after dark. Top Gear concluded rather tersely that they simply didn’t get used to it. Whether you do is something that a test drive is more likely to determine than a review.
Beyond the rear window, the Polestar 4 is a car of studied minimalism and reasonable substance. The interior is genuinely good — decluttered Scandinavian surfaces, excellent material quality, a 15.4-inch central touchscreen running Google-based software that Doug praises for being uncommonly well laid out and simply described. The climate vents are hidden to maintain the clean aesthetic, which means adjusting them requires going into a menu, which is the price you pay for looking calm. The seat belts are gold, because Polestar’s signature colour is gold, and that detail manages to be both slightly odd and rather pleasing at the same time. Interior mood lighting comes in several settings, all named after planets. This is very much a car for people who like that sort of thing.
Performance in dual-motor form is serious. 544 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, 280 miles of range from a 100 kWh battery that supports 200 kW DC fast charging, taking the pack from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes. The ride and handling draw consistent praise across reviewers — quiet, composed, quick when asked, and steered with more precision than the body style typically suggests. Polestar built early models in China, but those destined for the US are now assembled in Busan, South Korea, sidestepping the tariff volatility that has complicated Chinese-made EV imports.
Pricing starts at $56,400 for the single-motor rear-wheel-drive car, rising to $62,900 for the dual-motor. A well-equipped dual-motor example lands around $80,000 once options are applied. At that price, it is competing against the Porsche Macan Electric, the BMW iX3, and the forthcoming electric Mercedes GLC — cars with considerably stronger brand equity and, in most cases, a rear window. The value case is reasonable but not overwhelming, and Polestar’s challenge remains what it has always been: the brand doesn’t generate the loyalty or the cultural cachet that turns a good car into a sold car.
What the Polestar 4 does have is a point of view, which is rarer than it should be in this segment. Most premium electric crossovers are competent, quiet, and entirely forgettable as objects. The Polestar 4 is none of those things. It has made a specific set of design decisions — the window, the minimalism, the planet-named lighting modes, the buttonless key fob, the exterior spec sheet printed on the door — and it stands behind them without apology. You may find this approach charming. You may find it exhausting. Either way, you will form an opinion about this car, which puts it ahead of roughly half its rivals before it has moved an inch.
The EV market is full of cars that are technically accomplished and aesthetically anonymous. The Polestar 4 is neither. Whether that turns out to be a winning formula commercially is another question entirely.
At least you’ll always know which direction you came from.
