2026 Polestar 4 First Drive Review

The Polestar 4 is finally ready to whirr onto American roads two years after it debuted and a year after the original plan. The arrival restores the two-model lineup—after Polestar stopped selling the 2 here—and it gives the brand a five-seat midsize crossover entrant below the larger, $67,500 Polestar 3.

Let's hit the hot button first and get it out of the way: The Polestar 4's missing rear window, done to maximize interior room. Sliding the rear header rail (where the top of a rear window would attach) backward placed the bulky bits over the cargo bay, creating more headroom for back seaters.

We were told Polestar isn't anti-rear window—the decision to backlight or not to backlight will be made on a car-by-car basis. The coming Polestar 5 also skips the rear window, and the Polestar 6 roadster doesn't have a back window because it doesn’t have a roof or B-pillars. But our guess is that the Polestar 7, a small crossover that will probably have a more upright greenhouse, akin to the 3, could have a backlight.

The tailgate is composed of an aluminum panel in the center of the hatch that's defined by a contour line, making it look like a cover, and plastic for the rest. The aluminum is decorative and functional. Designers didn't like the look of a solid plastic tailgate, which is how the contour line appeared. And engineers needed to keep the tailgate's large, flat expanse from vibrating like a drum head as air swept over it, hence the aluminum insert. Prepare to see some flashier Polestar 4 owners apply art and contrasting colors to the aluminum panel.

The 4's rearward design didn't change the driving experience up front, though. The digital rearview mirror provides a wider and crisper rearward view than you'd get from traditional glass, so after pulling out of the hotel valet, we didn't think about the novel passenger car arrangement until we had to pull out of our lunch parking space; muscle memory compels me to turn my head around when reversing, my only reminders of the situation. We make the "passenger car" clarification because the millions of U-Haul vans and chassis cab pickups running their routes make do with even less visibility, to no ill effect.

In fact, we spent more time getting used to the digital rearview mirror. A small subset of drivers with unusual vision quirks (such as myself, being nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other), when in their normal driving positions, might find the mirror images less than NASA crisp. However, everything in the mirror is so large and vibrant that it has no material effect on how one drives.

And we really do mean large in certain cases, like urban driving. When stopped at a light, the image of a sedan behind you will start about halfway up the other car's hood, as if its grille and radiator are in your back seat. Objects in the mirror appear closer than they are. Drivers can push a button on the mirror to switch from camera view to a regular mirror for a view of the back seat.

Polestar also told us that the mirror gathers more ambient light at night than one would get from traditional glass, we weren't able to test that.

That's all the potential controversy to find in the Polestar 4—the rest is a premium electric crossover, by now a familiar quantity among drivers and car shoppers.

Measuring in at 190.5 inches long, 81.4 inches wide, and 60.4 inches high, the Polestar 4's dimensions make it seem like the Polestar 2 and 3 slipped into a romantic parking spot behind an Ikea and emerged the next morning with a legacy that they named "4."

The 4 inherited most of its looks from the 2; a stouter version of that sedan stood up on its tiptoes, while size falls in between the 2 and 3. The 4 is roughly nine inches longer than the 2, with a roof two inches higher, but it's a whopping nine inches wider. Looking the other way, the 4 undercuts the 3 by about two inches in length and three in height, but the 4 is four inches wider than the 3.

Compared to a Tesla Model Y, the Polestar is about two inches longer, but the Tesla is about three inches wider and taller.

Where the Polestar 4 beats all is its 118-inch wheelbase. This, like the window situation, is about maximizing occupant room, not battery capacity. The 110 prismatic cells of nickel manganese cobalt chemistry supplied by CATL add up to 100 kWh (94 kWh usable), a skosh less capacity than the 114 kWh nominal (107 kWh usable) pack in the Polestar 3 that gets the larger car further down the road on a charge.

Beyond form factor and window count, the 4 can also be distinguished from the 3 by an altered headlight design, the 4 splitting its Thor's Hammer design into two separated units.

The interior experience makes us glad Polestar worked to liberate the room. A competitive set of the Audi Q6 e-tron, Porsche Macan EV, and Tesla Model Y has the 4 jousting with more traditional crossover shapes, all of which feature higher rooflines. The Polestar's front seats are roomy and comfortable, with plenty of headroom—although the seats are not as supportive as they look nor as sporty as one might expect from a brand that stresses its performance roots.

The rear seats were fine to swallow my long-legged 5'11 frame, the roof about 1.5 inches away at its closest point. This roominess from the hips upward isn't equaled in the other direction, though. The cabin floor is stepped, rising a couple of inches from where the driver's feet sit. The rear floor placed our feet higher than expected, and combined with front seats so low you can't slide your toes underneath, created more knee bend than expected. Reclining the rear seats only exacerbates the discrepancy. Another odd bit: The buttons to recline are on the sides of the armrest, so you can't lie back before pulling the armrest out, a tough task if you're sitting three across.

Cargo space amounts to 19 cubic feet under the tailgate, aided by a frunk good for a backpack and sneakers. The rear seats fold down for extra-large deliveries, unlocking 54 cubic feet of room, and there's a space under the rear floor to put the partition panel between the rear seat and rear load space.

Polestar interior designers nailed the materials. The past decade has shown us numerous ways to turn plastic into vehicle fabrics and "vegan leather." In the premium and luxury segments, the efforts often break the illusion of indulgence, feeling more like sustainability statements than plush components of the design. On top of available Nappa leather, Polestar's team worked with a Swedish design university to create two new materials. The optional Tailor Knit is used as seat panel inserts, the optional Tech Knit is found on the doors and instrument panel, its wide weave letting illumination through from the solar-system-based ambient lighting themes. The standard "Bio-attributed MicroTech" looks like soft shell jacket material, and even it comes off as premium when cut and cross-stitched.

Digital interfaces copy the Polestar 3's layout, a 10.2-inch driver display perched above the steering column and a large infotainment screen jutting from the instrument panel. Here, instead of the 3's vertically-oriented screen, the 4 goes with what is effectively a clear and crisp 15.4-inch laptop screen. Otherwise, this is the same easy infotainment experience found in the 3, updated to address some of the choices early Polestar 3 reviewers complained about. So, for instance, drivers still need to use the screen to adjust the steering wheel and side mirrors. But a button on the right steering wheel spoke pulls up an adjustment menu in the driver display that gets one to the relevant page in two or three clicks.

Kudos to the UI team for the range of adjustability among menus on the main page and shortcuts page. Every new owner could easily spend a half day exploring every icon and possible placement—from the three settings for the suspension to where those settings should live—to get a suitable custom arrangement.

Our only complaint: Opening the glove box also demands a screen command. For those who put valuables in their glove boxes, this means that they can set a password to open the compartment. But we'd like to be able to put the glovebox button on the main page shortcuts, which we couldn't figure out a way to do. When we want the napkins we've stashed in the box, we want them now.

Permanent magnet synchronous motors make 272 horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque. Buyers can choose to equip the 4 with one motor or two, working through a single-speed reduction gear. A 272-hp single-motor variant gets the 4,916-pound CUV from zero to 60 mph in a claimed 6.9 seconds. The 544-hp dual-motor AWD car rips its 5,192 pounds to the same mark in a claimed 3.7 seconds, making this the quickest car Polestar's put on the market until the 844-hp Polestar 5 halo sedan arrives. (Yes, it's a couple hundredths quicker than the Polestar 1.)

The single-motor trim relies on passive dampers and coil springs; the dual-motor upgrades to active ZF dampers with Standard, Nimble, and Firm modes that can be further upgraded with a sport tune. On the standard 20-inch aero wheels, the EPA rates the single-motor at 300 miles on a charge, and the dual-motor is rated to go 272 miles. Those willing to swap range for stance can upgrade to 21-inch wheels for $1,800 on either trim. The dual-motor also offers a package that bolts on 22-inch wheels, summer tires, and larger Brembo brakes with Swedish Gold calipers.

As we mentioned, Polestar likes to refer to its performance heritage; the brand was born as a team in the Swedish Touring Car Championship. We sampled a dual-motor drive with 21-inch wheels but none of the other performance options, and a single-motor with the Plus Pack. When it's time to put electrons to hard work, we felt more natural driving the 4 as a swift, massively comfortable long-distance cruiser than to test its performance bona fides. It would not be wrong to name this the Polestar 4 GT.

Our assessment is partly down to the roads around Austin, Texas. The few roads on our drive route featuring enough curves, tight enough to test ultimate performance, also featured loose gravel, free-roaming livestock, and shocking ripples.

The single-motor feels quicker than its 60-mph dash suggests. The dual-motor launches instantly, no matter the speed, but this is what we expect from such EVs. The suspension does equally well at body control, absorbing jolts, and keeping the 21-inch wheels from skipping over broken pavement. But Polestar's been applying sensational suspension tunes to production cars for nearly 20 years, so this is also what we expect; even the passive suspension on the single-motor 4 is responsive and agile, never feeling like a penalty box compared to the dual-motor's fancier setup.

The controls are precise and well-damped, if less than communicative, another common trait in the CUV segment. This isn't disappointment—the 4 is more engaging to drive than any Audi Q6 e-tron that doesn't have an "S" in the trim name, not as engaging as any (far more expensive) Macan EV. And lacking the torque vectoring found on the Polestar 3, even the larger crossover can exhibit a snappier tail.

Our only nitpick is the lane-keep assist in the ProPilot system. It likes to ride in the center of the lane and doesn't like being budged off line without the driver making a turn signal request. When you want to avoid something in the lane, like roadkill, the steering wheel quickly loads up resistance, then, if you keep applying lock, the wheel just as quickly drops all resistance, making the car juke in its lane as you recover from the fakeout, and it turns off ProPilot. An OTA update for a smoother resistance curve could fix this.

Until we can get a Polestar 4 into a canyon road (or a fjord road), we're satisfied the 4 does everything you want a midsize premium CUV to do, and it's delightfully good at devouring miles with quiet calm. No need for a rear window in this one, because if it speaks to you, there's no reason to look back from the choice.

The single-motor 2026 Polestar 4 starts at $57,800 after the $1,400 destination charge, and the dual-motor starts at $64,300.

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