New Polestar 5 2026 review: extravagant GT ticks all the right boxes

Verdict

Polestar has finally delivered on the promise of its 2020 Precept concept car, which you can now go out and buy as the Polestar 5. It’s an extravagant, five-door GT with enough all-electric power to worry far more expensive variants of the Porsche Taycan – though the Polestar does things its own way. It’s a suitably impressive halo model for the rapidly expanding brand and the best news? There’s no need to spend the extra on the Performance model.

While some carmakers are easing back on their electric roadmaps, Polestar is accelerating forward, with several new models due in the next couple of years, including the Polestar 7 SUV, a completely new Polestar 2 and even a wagon version of the Polestar 4. Before any of those hit the road, it’s the turn of the Polestar 5, sired from the so-called “manifesto” show car of some six years ago and set to be the torchbearer for the Swedish company.

Comparisons with the Porsche Taycan are difficult to avoid as both are low-slung, electric GT cars within a five-metre-long footprint and lots of performance on tap. However, the Polestar 5’s entry price of £89,500 for the Dual Motor model brings with it 737bhp and a range of 421 miles, meaning you’d need one of the costly Taycan Turbos to beat its power output, while only the basic, rear-drive Taycan can match that range figure.

For now, just two versions of the Polestar 5 are available, both weighed down with an enticing Launch Edition specification. The most expensive is the Performance car, at £104,900, which gets bigger wheels, a banging Bowers & Wilkins sound system upgrade, more gold detailing and, of course, a bump in performance. Its two motors generate up to 871bhp – meaning 0-62mph in just 3.1 seconds – though the range drops to 347 miles.

Despite that, the Polestar 5’s numbers are impressive by any measure, but as we shall see, this car turns out to be about more than just a set of raw figures.

One of the reasons the Polestar 5 took so long to come to market is its bonded-aluminium architecture, developed from the ground up for this car (and others to follow). And because of the lengths the Polestar engineering team went to, it’ll raise a few eyebrows that the Dual Motor car has no adaptive or adjustable suspension. This is one of the main differentiators between it and the Performance variant, as the later gets sophisticated ‘Magneride’ dampers as standard, along with a slightly lower ride height. Without wishing to spoil the surprise, this is not the disadvantage it might first appear to be.

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You’ll spot the Performance model easily enough at a glance as its gold-painted Brembo brake callipers peek out through a set of 21-inch wheels. But that’s about the only visual difference between them.

It’s an arresting shape, clearly in line with the rest of the Polestar lineup in terms of the geometric style of the LED lighting, yet notably svelte and low to the ground. From the rear it looks particularly dramatic, wide and low. It would be easy to miss the fact it has no back window at first, as there’s a massive glass roof extending into the rear of the car, and the tailgate is sloped and sculpted in an attractive manner. In any paint hue other than black, it soon becomes clear that there’s a lot of extra body colour ahead of the full-width rear lights. This doesn’t detract from the exterior appearance, but it certainly is a talking point, as we’ve already experienced in the Polestar 4.

Rear-seat passengers probably won’t notice this at all, as the glass roof extends past where their heads are. Anyway, they’ll be too busy luxuriating in their own bucket-style seats with electric adjustment to take any notice. 

The Polestar 5 is ostensibly a five-seater, though the design of the middle rear seat makes it obvious that three’s a crowd back there and it’s a nicer place to be if the central armrest is instead folded down with access to its cupholders, extra storage and neatly integrated climate control switchgear.

All the rear seating electrically folds forward if you need to carry long items in the boot. Though this is easy to access thanks to the wide, electric tailgate, its 365-litre capacity is best described as “only adequate”, even if it is supplemented by a 62-litre frunk.

There’s a sense of high quality no matter where you’re sitting in the Polestar 5, helped by its minimalist design and tactile mix of materials. Saying that, the standard upholstery is a synthetic fabric, and real leather is a relatively expensive option at £5,300.

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The smooth appearance throughout is partly due to reliance on the large, upright touchscreen in the middle of the car. It runs Android Automotive OS and has Google built-in, so it’s fairly slick as these things go, but a few physical buttons wouldn’t go amiss. Thankfully there’s a separate instrument panel in front of the driver, plus a head-up display so you don’t have to take your eyes away from the road too often.

Given the performance on tap, that’s a very good thing. Even the “lesser” Dual Motor model can summon up violent acceleration, though it’s the way it seamlessly gathers pace that impresses more. Driven sedately, it feels polished, smooth and refined. There’s no audible noise from the electric motors while wind and road roar are well isolated too. 

The passive suspension feels supple and comfortable even through a busy city centre, the steering is pleasingly direct without being hyperactive and the brake pedal feel – so long as you choose the lowest level of brake energy regeneration – is well judged. 

This serenity and composure remain as speeds increase, and yet, when you point the low nose at an interesting road, the Polestar 5 seems to up its game. There’s very little lean in the corners, no matter how fast you drive, the steering is a real highlight in terms of its linearity and smoothness and though the car weighs 2.5 tonnes, it is a cinch to perfectly place, whether you’re braking to the apex of a corner from high speed or threading it through a series of sinuous s-bends.

There’s rock-solid stability and yet also an inherent agility and playfulness to the chassis. The way Polestar has managed this with a passive system is remarkable. Indeed, driving the Performance model illustrates how good the base car is, as while the more expensive suspension does keep a keener eye on unwanted body movements, it’s also slightly less comfortable.

Price difference aside, the extra range of the Dual Motor is likely to persuade more buyers to go for it. Either way, the Polestar 5 has an 800-volt architecture so can charge at up to 350kW, meaning a 10-80 per cent charge in as little as 22 minutes, so you’ll never be waiting around too long to get back behind the wheel. Again with the big, impressive numbers, but those aren’t what you’ll remember most about the Polestar 5, and you’ll certainly want to get back in and drive again as soon as you can.

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