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RE: 2027 Polestar 5 Performance | UK Review

Tuesday 6th October

2027 Polestar 5 Performance | UK Review

The 884hp, £105k Polestar supersaloon meets wet UK roads. Still a success?

Forgive the cliché, but the Polestar 5 looks otherworldly on UK tarmac. No wonder they’ve fitted that private plate. It’s the firm’s first fully ground-up car, and on styling alone it comprehensively sticks the landing. After a decade and a half of EVs flip-flopping between bold, pioneering design (original BMW i3) and something warm and familiar (um, the latest BMW i3), here’s a car that treads its own path without fear. There are lots of signature Polestar design touches on a shape that needs seeing to truly believe; unlike the Swedes’ other fully electric models, this one doesn’t indecisively straddle a line between saloon and crossover. It’s unabashed about its positioning as a traditional four-door grand tourer.

Albeit one with ungodly amounts of power. Bossman Nic drove the entry-level (!) 748hp dual-motor, passively damped car on sunny European tarmac in the summer. Damp, autumnal roads inevitably host our UK first drive in the halo 884hp Polestar 5 Performance with its clever MagneRide dampers, adjustable through three levels on the touchscreen but adapting to the surface centimetre by centimetre beneath you.

Much of the car’s R&D was carried out by a UK-based team in Coventry and around MIRA – peaking at 500 folks at one point before being poignantly disbanded once the project approached the finish line – with all the usual know-how forged in Formula 1 and in the products of Aston, JLR, Lotus and McLaren, among others. Senior chassis engineer Joakim Rydholm concluded the development programme on a drive in Germany, where the ideal balance of comfort and precision was struck on a winding backroad, his arms immediately prickling with goosebumps. He beams when recollecting it. Joakim was on the small team that honed the fabulous Polestar 1 and he rallies a Mitsubishi Evo X in his spare time. I was already excited to dig beneath the 5’s spectacular surface – knowing the person who signed off its chassis is so clearly ‘one of us’ only ramps up the anticipation.

While the car tips the scales at 2,500kg – its 112kWh battery no doubt taking a lot of responsibility – there’s still lightweighting where possible. The chassis is bonded aluminium (and makes the 5 twice as stiff as a Polestar 3), there’s aluminium centres amid its enormous brake discs, while inside there’s lots of Bcomp, a sustainable carbonfibre alternative that recycles at the end of its life. About an eighth of the body and chassis calls upon recycled aluminium. As ever, Polestar has made a lengthy report of the car’s lifetime climate impact publicly available – of its predicted 30.1 tonnes of CO2 emissions, 23.8 come from its production. A smaller number than the lighter, slower Polestar 2, just to prove the rate of progress.

So it nails the Polestar basics, even if it’s another model produced in China rather than Scandinavia. Climb inside – through slinky frameless doors – and it feels wholly familiar too, right down to the firm’s classy signature font that’s used with gratifying uniformity across each surface and display it occupies. Yep, a massive portrait touchscreen dominates and takes a good while to wrap your head around, although shortcuts can be easily fixed on its homepage. Adjusting the reach of its rim with a combo of screen and glossy steering wheel buttons feels an unbelievable faff, but then most owners will only do so once. Likewise the side mirrors.

The fab Recaro seats quickly make amends, though, and they drop reasonably low by EV standards to nestle you nicely in the car. Visibility is good with the inevitable caveat of a rear window being ditched in favour of a camera feed. Better for torsional rigidity, however, and unless the camera goes wrong further into the 5’s future, I think you’ll adjust. Though some drivers with varifocals don’t seem as taken with the setup. Perhaps one to interrogate on a test drive…

This Performance setup – as per the performance EV standard – is bonkers on a British B road. No one truly needs 884hp or a 3.1-second sprint to sixty-two, and a few seconds at full throttle only hammers that point home. A true sign of this car’s deep reservoir of performance comes from relaxing the throttle mid-acceleration before promptly nestling it back into the carpet – the endorphins flow even greater, the force somehow stronger. It’s mad.

And yet it’s utterly useable. Joakim and his team spent 5,000 hours alone developing the Polestar-specific compound of its Michelins, and Lord knows how many more tuning such wonderful linearity and precision into the throttle. Likewise, the steering; while it doesn’t brim with old-school feel or fidelity, it lightly and accurately flicks the nose into bends with a rate that mirrors the response of your other key controls. The nerdy level to which this powertrain and chassis have been developed is always obvious.

Our car rode on optional 22-inch wheels, and I suspect keen drivers will want the standard 21s. The ride is damn good, actually, and its billing as a GT car feels right. There’s no vast difference between its three on-screen parameters, though Joakim’s goosebumps arrived in the midmost ‘Nimble’ setting.

The 5 slinks down narrow, single-track roads with surprising ease, though you become acutely aware of its length and footprint on corner exit. It’ll squirm around happily on moist tarmac, most notably in its looser ESC Sport mode, and without the Michelins warmed through it can behave like an F10 M5 on full throttle in a straight line. When I consult Joakim over a coffee on how much freedom the Sport setting allows, he grins and says: “You’ve made a choice to select that mode”. Ever the rally driver.

Warmer roads and rubber reveal a near-infallible level of grip and traction, however, and a car that deploys its doolally outputs with professionalism yet engagement. It’s a GT first and foremost, but dips its feet confidently into the world of the muscular sports saloon and ought to give the new Jaguar Type 01 a stern challenge should we ever get the two together. While likely being an easier going, more useable thing four-up, the vast panoramic roof of the 5 negates any lost daylight from its closed rear.

Polestar shuns fake noise or gears but there’s enough precision coursing through its controls for you to not feel bereft without them. Honed by Brits and made in China, there’s nevertheless a hushed, Swedish modesty to its swagger down a road.

Is this Performance worth £15,450 more than the ‘base’ Dual Motor? A brief stint in the latter reveals little let-up in its performance and its passive damping nicely mirrors the softest setting of the more muscular 5’s MagneRide. Day-to-day, you won’t miss all the bombast of the halo car. Whether you need it is more of a philosophical question, I think. Will the team consider a lighter, single-motor rear-drive car? Perhaps.

Joakim describes the 5 as a “dream project”; his team benchmarked the Porsche Taycan and Panamera, Audi e-tron GT and the hybrid BMW M5. The Polestar 5 treads its own path amongst them, its broadly supple ride, bombastic performance and potential for quite visceral entertainment perhaps a lovely amalgamation of all their best bits.

UK boss Matt Galvin has no sales targets and admits the 5 will perform a halo role as much as anything – not least with an all-new Polestar 2 coming next year to mop up any volume aspirations. If demand flows strongly for the 5, its supply will be managed in an attempt to shore up its residual values. Because ultimately this is a car that only attracts major criticism by the usual, fast EV parameters: its silly surplus of performance in everyday conditions, its enormous weight figure and the question mark over how much it’ll still be worth a few years down the line. The Polestar 5 is otherwise every bit as beguiling an experience as its spacecraft looks suggest.

SPECIFICATION | 2027 POLESTAR 5 PERFORMANCE

Engine: Dual electric motors
Transmission: Single-speed, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 884
Torque (lb ft): 749
0-62mph: 3.1secs
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 2,500kg
Battery: 800V, 112kWh capacity
Efficiency/range: 2.9mi/kWh, 346 miles
Max DC charging: 350kW; 10-80% charge in 22mins
Price: £104,950

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Twoshoe

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