Polestar 3 Review: The EV That Might Just Have Converted Me

17th August 2026

Polestar 3 review: By Rachel Ducker

Could an electric car really work for a family of five? I drove the Polestar 3 from Suffolk to Cornwall on my very first EV road trip to find out.

To begin this review, confession – I’ve never driven an EV before this trip.

For someone who spends a lot of time on the road, frequently with three children, three car seats and enough luggage to make it look as though we’re moving house, swapping from a standard petrol car to an EV has always seemed like an awful lot to commit to.

So when Polestar invited my family and I on the ultimate road trip from our home in Suffolk to the tip of Cornwall for a special solar eclipse event, it really did feel like the perfect opportunity to really put an electric car to the test.

Not a quick spin, not a carefully controlled test drive, but an actual family road trip. And I returned with a much changed view of electric cars.

First impressions of the Polestar 3

Described by Polestar as an “electric performance SUV” this car is stunning and has the feel of a very premium car.

It’s sleek and modern without being OTT, but the real highlight for me was fitting three car seats in the back of this car. I’ve struggled to find a car that can comfortably fit three car seats at the back of it in countless cars so Polestar 3 scored some serious brownie points for this and I can confirm that at no point did one passenger feel pushed up against another in the back – this feels far more important to me than a long spec list for a family car.

And then there’s the boot…

Family means luggage – and with that comes bags, bags, bags, shoes, coats, toys and snacks. And often there’s quite a few things we take with us that we’ll probably never even use. It’s brilliant that The Polestar 3 took every one of these items in its stride, with 484-litres of luggage space (excluding the front storage of course), including a large 90-litre under-floor storage area, which I discovered during the packing phase.

This feature really does add to this car’s practicality; it works as sort of a double-decker boot which meant we were able to pack our main baggage below and place all of our essentials on top under the lift-up boot floor.

Technology that actually makes EV driving easier

One of the largest fears I harboured before driving an EV was the charging; where you can stop, what charger to choose, what to do if you misjudged how much range you had left miles from your destination…

With integrated Google Maps, I can confirm that The Polestar 3 takes the range of your current battery into account and is able to plan your charging stops efficiently. As a first time EV driver, I had to admit that this part removed a huge amount of the anxiety related to driving an electric vehicle.

Rather than frantically trying to do math in the car about how far I could go, the car effectively guided us along the route.

Learning how to charge on a long journey

That being said this trip was certainly a learning curve. Given this journey is quite substantial from Suffolk to Cornwall, as an inexperienced EV driver I didn’t quite realise how much difference the type of charger chosen had to charging time, and in hindsight, trying to seek out the most rapid charging points would have made this journey far swifter.

In optimal conditions, the latest generation Polestar 3 is able to recharge from 10-80% in as quick as 22 minutes with the right 310-350kW charger in ideal circumstances – this being a far different rate from arrival at a much slower charger, although this wouldn’t necessarily be a criticism of the car itself; it just shows it as something to consider for future longer journeys.

It reminded me slightly of getting the first smartphone – when you first get one it’s unfamiliar, but the more you use and understand it, the more it naturally fits into your life without constant consideration. Ownership of an EV likely works in much the same way.

The actual drive

I’m going to be honest, this was the bit I was least expecting.

The Polestar 3 is ridiculously fast!

There’s no gear changing, no noise, and as soon as you tap the accelerator you feel this immediate, rapid response. Depending on the version used, acceleration figures for the latest Polestar 3 ranges from 0-60mph in 6.3 seconds with the Rear motor and just 3.8 seconds with the Performance model.

I’m not recommending we turned our trip to Cornwall into Silverstone, but it felt incredibly assured on the road. When accelerating onto a busy carriageway, or needing that surge of power to overtake, there was nothing at all to doubt.

It was incredibly smooth, silent and incredibly responsive.

Of course, the key thing is there are zero direct emissions when you are driving an EV however Polestar has clearly been meticulous in advising the user that your own environmental impact will ultimately differ depending on how you power your EV and I found this honesty throughout the testing to be much appreciated.

Sustainability without hiding the details

Sustainability is an increasingly important thought process to me and it plays a huge role in my role as a writer, and so I was keen to learn how the Polestar 3 addressed the issue.

What was so pleasing was the fact that they make their choices clear: bio-attributed MicroTech made using renewable vinyl and recycled polyester; animal-welfare certified and traceable wool, or recycled aluminium,the car was even fitted with traceable Bridge of Weir leather.

There was also an explanation on some of the materials used written on the inside of the car which I found highly informative, and for me, transparency was key; the sustainability implications of electric cars are complex, and I’d much prefer it over a simple “it’s eco” and then nothing.

Can we also talk about those yellow seatbelts?

I know this is controversial, but I loved them.

The Polestar 3’s Swedish gold seatbelts were featured and it gave the car something I found a bit special!

I have to admit they aren’t for everyone but I found them to be extremely special and they immediately set a car’s interior apart from the endless sea of grey and black you seem to be offered from most premium brands.

Suffolk to Cornwall in an EV

Of course, the Polestar was only part of this particular adventure. Polestar had invited us down to Cornwall around the solar eclipse on 12th August, meaning this was less a straightforward car test and more a family adventure.

While we were there, we were lucky enough to watch the eclipse unfold from a stunning National Trust property, which will quite frankly go down as one of the trip highlights.

We even squeezed in a family surfing lesson with Kingsurf School and a meal at the renowned Watergate Bay as part of our Cornwall road trip.

Normal day jobs, schooling, nursery and the usual hustle means that only having a couple of days to purely explore Cornwall together as a family felt rather special.

Having the Polestar 3 with us meant we could just cram the whole family and all our baggage into the car and whizz off to our next location without feeling squashed. It clearly laid out precisely where in my everyday life an EV needs to function.

Would I actually swap my petrol car for a Polestar?

That’s ultimately the question, and prior to this trip I’m fairly sure the answer would have been no.

Now?

I really would consider it. In the context of my normal, everyday family life here in Suffolk an EV makes so much sense.

The school run, nursery run, popping to the local shop, driving to a meeting, a days out to see family… all of that. Being able to pull into the driveway after work to charge it rather than be continually searching for a petrol station really appealed to me, and obviously when looking at the figures the money saved depending on electricity rates and charging infrastructure – even just simply charging at home – would mount up massively. The longer trips of course – the one to Cornwall and the journey home – still need a bit more thinking about.

You have to get familiar with the concept of rapid charging, work out when you ought to pull over, and get acquainted with charging networks.

But already, having done just one one-way EV road trip, I know a lot more about that than I did when we left Suffolk the other day. You get used to the routine and how it all works; you learn the charging times, where the quick chargers are, you calculate it into the travel time… you get over it – just like anything else in normal family life.

The Polestar 3 also has all the range to make proper road trips possible, with versions coming in with official WLTP figures of between 337-402 miles on the road (real world driving ranges will, as always with electric car manufacturers, vary depending on driving conditions, temperature, load and driving style).

My Polestar 3 verdict

So, the Polestar 3 surprised me.

I suspected I might enjoy driving it – I hadn’t exactly banked on coming home and contemplating swapping our current family hack into something electric.

It offered space for three car seats and our extensive family baggage; the technology in it helped reduce any anxieties I associated with EV motoring to effectively nil; it drove in a pleasingly fun, responsive manner; and I appreciated that Polestar was prepared to be candid about the materials used in its vehicle and the environmental concerns relating to the manufacturing process, instead of simply citing it as a ‘green’ car simply because it is electric. Would I plan our next run up the M4 to Cornwall in exactly the same way? Absolutely not.

I would have planned around some ultra-rapid charging locations and utilised what I learned on this journey into our stops. However, this is knowledge I did not possess prior to now. If you’re on the cusp as I was of considering an EV for the very first time for family purposes, if you have the ability to charge it easily at home then please consider, please look into the figures carefully, and then perhaps test drive one yourself.

Polestar, I think you’ve converted me in one swift trip down south.