polar star is a design-driven, purely electric brand, so the arrival of the Polestar 4 is no surprise (especially, coming as it does, after the Polestar 1, 2 and 3). But what is sobering is that this savvy brand of lateral thinkers and style mavens wants to rescue one of automotive’s most egregious niches: the SUV coupe.
It helps that the company’s CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, was a designer in a previous life. “Rather than simply modifying an existing SUV, giving it a faster roofline and as a result compromising things like rear headroom and comfort, we’ve designed the Polestar 4 from the ground up as a new generation of SUV coupe that celebrates the comfort of the rear occupants.” he claims.
So while the more powerful twin-motor Polestar 4 is powered by a 102 kWh battery for a claimed range of 350 miles (WLTP) and is the highest performing Polestar to date, it’s understandable that all eyes are on the design of the car and at the rear. end in particular. Because? Because Polestar has completely done away with the traditional rear window.
Those of the glass houses
Photography: polar star
It’s an idea the company explored with its magnificent 2020. Precept concept car, but here it is for real. Since the shape of a car’s “greenhouse,” as the designers call it, is central to how we read a vehicle, removing an important section is a strong statement.
Polestar has done this by embracing the capabilities of the high-definition display that replaces the old rear view mirror. This displays a real-time feed from a roof-mounted rear camera and offers a much wider field of view. These are not new – Range Rover has been using its ClearSight camera mirror for years, but Polestar is the first to maximize design potential.
The reason? By lengthening the silhouette of the Polestar 4, the car’s aerodynamic properties have also been optimized, a key part of an EV’s range-extending arsenal. The 4 has an impressively slippery coefficient of drag of 0.26. But it also allows you to reimagine the rear compartment of the car.
“In the past, we always had to provide an opening at the rear for a physical mirror,” Polestar lead designer Maximilian Missoni tells WIRED. “The camera technology is now very high resolution, works well at night, and the software is constantly being updated so we can add value to the system over time. We could remove the rear window and move the whole structure further back. Create a cocoon.”