Polestar 3 customer interest explodes

Australian demand for the new Polestar 3 has exploded more than year ahead of the large electric SUV’s arrival here in early 2024.

Mirroring the recent rush on the $300,000 Polestar 6 electric sports car that’s not due in local showrooms until at least 2026, Polestar Australia has received several thousand registrations of interest for the Swedish-designed large SUV that will rival the Audi Q8 e-tron.

“I think we’re over 3000 on the [Polestar 3] waitlist,” said Polestar Australia managing director Samantha Johnson, who stressed this was a substantial number given the Tesla Model X rival only had its global reveal in Copenhagen last month.

“So we’ve launched the Polestar 3 and handovers will probably start in early 2024, so unless we can bring it forward that’s the timeline at the moment,” said the Polestar executive.

Every registration of interest won’t necessarily translate into an order for the big battery-powered luxury SUV,  which has been priced from $135,000 and pumps out a hefty 360kW of power and 840Nm of torque.

But a Polestar Australia spokesperson told carsales that conversion rates are expected to be “very high”.

“We’d be hopeful they’d all transfer into an order; it’ll be a high conversion rate,” they said.

“There’s a huge interest in Polestar 3 in this market and in that premium [large SUV] segment it’s well priced and very well specified.”

Standard features for Australian-delivered Polestar 3 vehicles include dual-chamber air springs, adaptive dampers and countless cameras and ultrasonic sensors that may enable Level 3 autonomous driving capability on highways, not to mention a 25-speaker Bowers and Wilkins premium stereo and a big 14.5-inch infotainment screen.

Customers will be able to choose from recycled vegan fabric trim or guilt-free leather sourced from responsible and sustainable cow skin suppliers.

The Polestar 3 will be manufactured in both China and the US, but it’s not yet clear where Aussie cars be come from.

It’s understood Polestar will open the official order book for the Polestar 3 in the first quarter of 2023 and, given the EV is only 20mm shorter than one of Australia’s top-selling large luxury SUVs – the BMW X5 – it could find a lot of new friends in Australia.

Packing a huge 111kWh battery pack that’s claimed to deliver a long, WLTP-ratified 610km of range, the twin-motor all-wheel drive Polestar 3 is said to rip to 100km/h in five seconds flat.

For an extra $10,200, the optional Performance pack upgrades the e-motors by boosting power and torque to 380kW and 940Nm, improving 0-100km/h acceleration to 4.7sec but dropping range to 560km (WLTP).

Polestar’s local boss told carsales she wasn’t overly concerned about supply issues or long delivery delays for customers, noting that head office was committed to Australia.

“There's huge demand for the future EVs coming from Polestar,” said Johnson, hinting at the upcoming Polestar 3, 4 and 5 models that will land in Australia over the next few years.

The Polestar 2 mid-size electric sedan – a direct rival to the Tesla Model 3 – is currently the Chinese-Swedish brand’s only model on sale in Australia. But as the local operation’s managing director explained, it’s currently the nation’s third best-selling EV and there are plans to increase supply to meet the extra demand.

Tesla Model 3 v Polestar 2 2022 Comparison

“Currently we have about a four- or five-month waiting list for Polestar 2, which isn’t too bad. But anything that hits the ground gets sold straightaway, so there’s very high demand at the moment,” said Johnson.

“For Polestar 2 we've got quite a lot of growth expectations for the coming year. We started sales in February and we’ve now got over 1000 on the road and so next year we think that’s going to grow quite a lot, especially with the government’s discussion paper on the national vehicle strategy on its way.

“We think there’s going to be a lot more demand coming out from that, once the policies are announced. So we’re planning for that for next year and we should see some good growth.”

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