Polestar 4 is firing up Aussie buyers

It’s got no rear window, you can’t buy it from a traditional dealership, you’ll have to schedule a test drive online, it’s still six months away from arriving and it won’t come cheap, but none of this has deterred Australian buyers from lining up for Polestar’s latest SUV.

Indeed, Aussies are flocking to the Polestar 4, with pre-orders for the EV-only brand’s all-new mid-size SUV skyrocketing Down Under ahead of first local customer deliveries in August – a couple of months after the bigger, more expensive Polestar 3 large SUV in June.

“I would say [the lack of a rear window] hasn’t turned off consumers; Australia is in the top three markets globally for Polestar 4 orders,” confirmed Polestar Australia’s PR and communications boss, Laurissa Mirabelli.

“It demonstrates that the [EV] technology has appeal in Australia and that buyers are not at all deterred by innovation,” she told carsales.

The fact the Polestar 4 is priced from $81,400 plus on-road costs for the single-motor version and $93,050 plus ORCs for the dual-motor flagship – more than Australia’s dominant mid-size electric SUV, Tesla Model Y ($65,400 to $92,560) – doesn’t appear to have hurt its appeal either. Indeed it’s expected to become Polestar’s top-seller.

“Polestar 4 sits between Polestar 2 and Polestar 3 in terms of price and size… so it fits nicely in our product walk. It’s going to be the volume car for us – it’s accessible,” said Polestar’s global head of product communications, Brent Ellis.

The strong local pre-release interest in the Polestar 4 comes despite a high level of make and model saturation in Australia, where more than 50 new-vehicle brands – including several new EV-only Chinese car-makers – vie for buyers’ attention.

Both versions of the Polestar 4 will come with a big 94kWh lithium-ion battery (with nickel-manganese cobalt chemistry), providing a cruising range of 610km (WLTP) in the single-motor version, which is powered by a high-output (200kW/343Nm) electric motor that propels it to 100km/h in 7.4 seconds.

The flagship dual-motor Polestar 4 cranks out a generous 400kW/686Nm and will be the brand’s fastest production vehicle to date, scorching to 100km/h in 3.8sec and offering a 580km WLTP range.

Polestar’s comms execs wouldn’t be drawn on the precise number of Aussie orders already in the bank, nor which are the other two countries in the top three, but it’s highly likely that demand in Sweden will also be very strong.

The Polestar 4 has already been launched in China, where Australian vehicles will be produced, but Ellis said that in the second half of 2025 Polestar “will then increase production with the additional capacity in South Korea.

“Having that production efficiency and being closer to your markets is key,”

However, Ellis said it was too early to say if Polestar 4 vehicles would be built in Korea for Australia.

“Could be. [But] I’m not even going to speculate on that because… it’s too soon to tell at this point.

“That will all be worked out and it’s a fantastic partnership to start with another branch of the family and that will bring us advantages in different ways,” said Polestar’s global comms chief.

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