Forgetting something? Polestar 4 undercuts Porsche Macan EV, but doesn’t have a rear window

The Polestar 4 is Sweden’s answer to the newly-unveiled Porsche Macan EV, and it’s now on sale with prices starting from a tenner shy of £60,000.

A fashionable coupe-SUV, the new Polestar 4 is foreseen as the brand’s new top seller. What makes it truly stand out from the competition which also includes the BMW iX3 and Tesla Model Y, however, is its lack of a rear windshield – more on that later.

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For now, all Polestar 4 models will be offered in the UK at launch with a huge 94kWh (useable) battery pack. There will be two motor configurations, with the entry-level Long Range Single Motor, rear-wheel drive model producing 286bhp and able to cover up to 379 miles on a single charge.

Costing an extra £6,000 (£66,990), the Polestar 4 Long Range Dual Motor model outputs a hefty 536bhp which, according to Polestar, is enough to catapult the 2.3-tonne SUV from 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds – just half a second shy of the 630bhp Porsche Macan Turbo. The penalty for this extra power – aside from the uplift in price – is a small one, with the Twin-Motor suffering with a slightly reduced range of 360 miles.

Standard 200kW DC ultra-rapid charging means a 10-80% charge can be completed in just half an hour, provided you can find a suitable public charger. A first for a Polestar, however, is the 4’s compatibility with V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) charging, which enables the car to use its battery to power anything from a laptop to a microwave.

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Circling back to the Polestar 4’s design, perhaps its most distinctive exterior feature – other than the split headlight design – is the fact that it has no rear windshield. Instead, the driver must rely on the array of 24 cameras and sensors scattered around the car, with a screen (mounted in the same place as a traditional rear-view mirror) displaying a live feed of what’s behind.

On the inside, the Polestar 4 shares much in common with the more traditional Polestar 3 SUV. The dashboard is dominated by a 15.4-inch touchscreen – this time mounted horizontally instead of vertically – running Google-based software. It is complemented by a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster for the driver.

Designed to be sportier than the more spacious Polestar 3, the ’4’ also gets more heavily bolstered sports seats, as well a much higher centre console in order to give a more cockpit-esque feel. Polestar’s commitment to sustainability remains, however, with the cabin dressed in recycled and sustainably-sourced materials. Animal welfare-certified Nappa leather upholstery is available as an option, with a knitted fabric produced using recycled materials by a textile college in Sweden coming as standard.

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Other options include a Pro package which adds 21-inch alloys (20-inch wheels come standard), as well as gold accented seatbelts. Dual Motor cars can also be configured with the optional Performance Pack which adds a sportier chassis tune, as well as 22-inch wheels wrapped in sticky Pirelli rubber.

Polestar says first deliveries of the 4 are expected to arrive in August of this year. This is just after when the larger Polestar 3 is due on sale, a larger SUV which instead shares its underpinnings with the forthcoming Volvo EX90.