The Polestar 4 Aims To Be A $54,900 Electric Comeback Machine

The gleaming Polestar 4 made its North American debut today at the 2024 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). The sleek coupe sibling of the much more expensive Polestar 3 SUV has an MSRP of $54,900 before destination fees for the long-range single-motor variant. That stretches all the way up to $72,000 for the fully loaded long-range dual-motor version.

Until now, the Polestar 2 electric sedan was the Geely-owned brand’s main steed in the U.S. But Polestar hopes to turn things around by adding two new models to its line-up this year, making it a three-car brand. Deliveries of the 3 are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024, whereas the 4 will hit the roads in the fourth quarter. Test drives will begin before the official launch dates for both EVs.

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Polestar has been struggling lately

After a poor sales performance last year, Polestar wasn’t in good shape. Volvo pulled its funding of the brand, leaving it to secure a $1 billion lifeline from international banks. CEO Thomas Ingenlath hopes that things could turn around this year with a more diversified portfolio on the roads.

In terms of price and positioning, the 4 slots between its sedan and SUV siblings. The 2 starts just a shade under $50,000 whereas the 3 has a starting MSRP of $73,400. It will lock horns with the Tesla Model Y Performance and Kia EV6 GT among others, but price-wise the 4 is no match to them. It’s much more expensive and that’s what the brand is aiming for—a premium, tech-heavy, and performance-focused offering, CEO Thomas Ingenlath told InsideEVs in an interview ahead of the NYIAS debut of the electric coupe.

Here’s the full pricing of the Polestar 4:

As you can see, the dual motor variants cost comfortably over $60,000, about $10,000 more expensive than the Model Y Performance, and nearly the same as the Kia EV6 GT all-wheel drive. So it’s not directly competing with any of those cars.

Ingenlath confirmed that Polestar 2 is where the entry point is. “The mass market is not our market. The portfolio that we have starts at the Polestar 2 price level and it goes all the way up to where the Polestar 5 and 6 will be,” he said. “If you go [to mass market] it’s fine but it’s a completely different game. You have to be clear about the nature of your company and for us, it’s the premium exclusive segment.”

That said, the coupe is based on parent company Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) that it shares with the Zeekr 001 and the Volvo EX30. The single-motor versions are rated for 272 horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque, accelerating from naught to 60 miles per hour in 7.4 seconds.

The dual-motor versions are where things turn spicy. Polestar says this is their fastest EV, accelerating to 60 mph in a sprightly 3.8 seconds thanks to 544 hp and 506 lb-ft from the twin motors.

All variants are powered by the same 102-kilowatt-hour battery, allowing an estimated 300 miles of range with the single motor, and 270 miles with dual motors. Both figures are early estimates subject to change in the coming months. Maximum charging speed is 200 kilowatts—not a benchmark by any means, but it should juice up fairly quickly if it charges consistently at a high charging curve.

Things haven’t been smooth for Polestar lately, as for every other EV upstart. In 2023, when most brands saw explosive growth in their EV sales, Polestar struggled. Its global sales only grew 6% with about 54,600 models sold. Volvo, on the other hand, had a record year with more than double the BEV sales.

In February 2023, Volvo stopped funding Polestar to focus on its own projects. The announcement at the time stated that parent company Geely was now the “significant” new shareholder in Polestar. On a positive note, Polestar secured nearly $1 billion in funding from a dozen international banks last month.

Polestar requires about $1.3 billion in funding to break even by 2025, which means it’s still about $350 million short. However, it seems to have the backing of Geely should things go south. It announced early this year that Geely Holdings Sweden intends to “participate in future financing activities when required.”

Moreover, a diversified portfolio of EVs, which now includes a sedan, SUV and a crossover-coupe mix, should also contribute to future growth. So the 4 might not be Polestar’s most affordable EV, but it certainly has a role in rescuing the company from its past struggles. How it will perform on that front is something we’ll know soon.

“2024 is a very crucial year for us. It will be completely different picture when we get into the second half of 2024 when the 3 and 4 are delivered to customers. We will see how Q3 and Q4 pass. Quarter four will be very defining,” Ingenlath told InsideEVs.

The order book for the 4 opens next month. The coupe is currently manufactured at Geely’s plant in Hangzhou Bay, China, and beginning in 2025, models for the North American and domestic South Korean markets will be made under contract manufacturing at Renault’s plant in Busan, South Korea.

Stay tuned as we’re bringing you more scoops about Polestar and other brands from the New York International Auto Show.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com