Polestar is a design-driven, pure-electric model, so the arrival of the Polestar 4 isn’t any shock (particularly, coming because it does, after Polestars 1, 2, and three). However what’s thought-provoking is that this savvy model of lateral thinkers and elegance experts desires to rescue one of many extra egregious automotive niches—the SUV coupé.
It helps that the corporate’s CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, was a designer in a former life. “Relatively than merely modifying an present SUV, giving it a sooner roofline, and because of this compromising components like rear headroom and luxury, we now have designed Polestar 4 from the bottom up as a brand new breed of SUV coupé that celebrates rear occupant consolation,” he claims.
So whereas probably the most highly effective dual-motor Polestar 4 runs a 102-kWh battery for a claimed vary of 350 miles (WLTP), and is probably the most high-performance Polestar so far, all eyes are understandably on the automobile’s design—and the rear finish particularly. Why? As a result of Polestar has removed the standard rear window fully.
These in Glass Homes
{Photograph}: Polestar
It’s an concept the corporate explored with its beautiful 2020 Precept idea automobile, however right here it’s for actual. Provided that the form of a automobile’s “glasshouse,” as designers seek advice from it, is core to how we learn a car, eliminating one main part of it’s a punchy assertion.
Polestar has finished it by embracing the capabilities of the high-definition display that replaces the age-old rear-view mirror. This shows a real-time feed from a roof-mounted rear digital camera, and delivers a much wider sight view. These aren’t new—Vary Rover has been utilizing its ClearSight camera mirror for years—however Polestar is the primary to max out on the design potential.
The explanation? In elongating the Polestar 4’s silhouette, the automobile’s aerodynamic properties have additionally been optimized, a key a part of an EV’s range-extending armory. The 4 has an impressively slippery 0.26 drag coefficient. Nevertheless it additionally allows a reimagining of the automobile’s rear compartment.
“Previously, we’ve all the time had to supply a gap on the rear for a bodily mirror,” Polestar’s head of design, Maximilian Missoni, tells WIRED. “Digital camera tech now could be very excessive decision, it really works nicely at night time time, and the software program is continually being upgraded so we are able to add worth into the system over time. We might take away the rear window and transfer the entire construction additional again. It creates a cocoon.”
