This is a very handsome car indeed. From every angle, the ‘new’ Polestar 5 (we’ll tackle those quote marks in a minute) offers up exactly what one would expect from a flagship performance product, long, low, lithe and finely proportioned.
So why the ‘new’? Seasoned Polestar gazers will have been aware of the 5 for quite some time. The car itself has been in the works since the end of the last decade, previewed by the Precept Concept way back in 2020. Described by then CEO Thomas Ingenlath as embracing ‘a new interpretation of Scandinavian minimalism’, it was still a distant endpoint on a long wishlist.
A more production-polished preview of the 5 emerged in 2022 before the trail went cold for a couple of years and Polestar focused on its core offering – the 2, 3 and 4. The production-ready Polestar 5 didn’t arrive until the 2025 Munich Motor Show and now here we are, at the tail end of 2026, finally driving the finished car. Yet far from being out to seed and deserving of its pension before it was even launched, the Polestar 5 somehow manages to still look right on the money.
There are two things going on here. The first is the power of successful proportions – in particular, how much ‘easier’ it is to render a form that is low, lithe and suggestive of style, performance and elegance when you have a bit of space to play with. Polestar 5 is a big car, over 5m long and over 2m wide, giving the team’s designers (at that point led by Maximilian Missoni, before he transferred out to work at BMW and Alpina) room to lower the height and stretch out the roofline.
To the casual observer, the 5 looks a little bit like a Polestar 4 that’s been put on the rack, losing the earlier car’s upright stance and introducing more grace. And more pace. The blend of package and performance simply would haven’t been possible without a bespoke platform, and in this respect the Polestar 5 represents a vote of confidence in the brand’s longevity from its parent company Geely.
Both P4 and P5 share the absence of rear fenestration, a controversial deletion that is now also seen in the Jaguar Type 01. In packaging terms, it makes sense because it allows rear seat passengers to have more headroom and the boot to be more spacious. In technological terms, it shouldn’t matter because of the existence of high-definition rear-view cameras and screens to replace the view.
In psychological terms, however, there’s still a hit to take. It’s not that the cabin is darker – the swooping panoramic glass roof that stretches for over two metres right down to behind the rear passengers' necks lets in more light than you could conceivably need. What’s missing is a sense of all-round perception, particularly for passengers.
Perhaps it’s an evolutionary hangover, but no amount of sensors and screens can make up for the very human desire to simply turn around to see what’s behind you. And if you’re in any way longsighted, the digital rear-view mirror joins the rest of the digital cockpit as a hit-or-miss collection of frustratingly blurry details.
That’s the only real criticism to level at the Polestar 5, unless you’re absolutely allergic to touchscreen controls. If so, you will in no way be endeared to the huge 14.5-inch centre display panel controlling everything from the door mirrors to the glove box. This is the Polestar way, it must be said, and although animation speed and responsiveness are top-notch, so is the arrogance with which the company has stayed wedded to its anti-analogue approach.
Things are slightly mitigated by the addition of contextual steering wheel buttons, and more day-to-day familiarity will presumably start to build up the muscle memory. Yet as first impressions go, it’s not great.
Selecting drive and moving off gives the P5 a chance at redemption. Happily for the Polestar team, we can report that they’ve succeeded. In the anachronistically picturesque surroundings of Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle, we found a medieval landscape threaded with extremely good modern roads. Here the big four-door excelled as a performance car, with a superbly balanced ride and creamy acceleration.
The ‘standard’ twin engine model doesn't have the active MagnaRide damper system offered on the Performance variant. Joakim Rydholm, Polestar’s ebullient senior chassis development engineer, was on hand to extol the virtues of this system and its ability to swiftly cycle through driving modes – as well as cloak the Polestar 5’s hefty 2,500kg curb weight.
The Performance trim upsides – more power, swifter acceleration and that excellent suspension – are mitigated by dramatically less range (346 miles versus 421 miles). It’s worth repeating that the headline figures of a particular EV are rarely confined to the same model; the car with more power, bigger wheels and a sportier stance is very rarely the car with the longest range. Polestar 5 proves this point yet again.
In fact, the bits that are best about this car are shared between models, so it becomes even harder to recommend the Performance version. The interior is 4+1, rather than a full five-seater, although the rears can have massage function and there’s lots of leg room.
The front seats are from Recaro and the cabin materiality is excellently considered at every level, from the flax and resin-based materials Polestar has developed as a recyclable alternative to carbon fibre, to the use of technical-style colours and textures. Audio comes via a 21-speaker system from partner Bowers & Wilkins, which includes a dash-spanning soundbar, while traditionalists can opt for Bridge of Weir leather.
Another thing we admire is Polestar’s insistence on a very granular breakdown of the cradle-to-grave emissions of all its models, a lifecycle assessment that feels like it really should be something other manufacturers adopt (which would in turn make it a more useful set of metrics). By way of illustration, the team demonstrate that the cradle-to-gate (i.e. rolling out of the factory) figures of Polestar 2 were 26.1 tonnes of CO2. For the Polestar 5 – a larger, faster and more efficient car – the figure is 23.8 tonnes, so something is clearly working.
All in all, it adds up to an aesthetic that hovers between retro futurism and forward-thinking futurology. How well the current Polestar style will date is anyone’s guess, but our hunch is that in a decade or so they’ll experience a cliff-like drop in desirability, before swinging around to swiftly achieve classic status.
If you’re in the market for a svelte, swift and zero emission saloon car, there’s now more choice than ever, although it’s still hardly the most dynamic sector – saloons are still very much on the wane. That’s not to say that the choice is lacklustre. The Polestar 5 goes head-to-head with the Porsche Taycan and its sibling, the Audi e-tron GT. There’s also the slightly pricier Jaguar Type 01 to consider and – for a wildcard – the Lexus ES.
The latter eschews the outright speed and style of the others in favour of practicality (and a much more attractive sticker price) but probably doesn’t have the brand lustre to make it a true competitor. There’s also Bentley’s forthcoming Torcal to consider, although now we’re well and truly in the realm of crossovers.
It’s the Taycan that should be considered the 5’s natural rival. The e-tron GT, although wonderful, suffers even more than Porsche when it comes to depreciation and doesn’t have anything like the brand recognition of the Weissach-designed electric missile. Yet with just four models in play and annual sales (last year) of 60,000 units, Polestar is certainly on a lower rung than Porsche, let alone Audi (1,623,000 units across at least 14 models, all of which have numerous variations).
Despite the interface missteps and the unconventional window situation, Polestar has still managed to command significant brand loyalty in a very short space of time. New models, including the SUV variant of the Polestar 4 and 2027’s next generation Polestar 2 will give it even more of a boost, especially the compact Polestar 7, with its close mechanical relationship to the popular Volvo EX30.
Finally, there’s also the Polestar 6, a mooted but still not yet confirmed coupé/roadster variant. If it happens, the 6 promises to push the company even further into luxury territory, building on the desirability that oozes out of the Polestar 5.
Polestar 5, Dual Motor from £89,500, Performance from £104,900, Polestar.com, @Polestarcars