New 2023 Polestar 4 officially previewed ahead of Shanghai reveal
Upcoming 4 will wear sharp new Polestar front end design
Sporting SUV sibling to the Polestar 2 will be priced from £49,000 and offer up to 373 miles of range
The Polestar 4 coupe-crossover will be revealed at the Shanghai motor show later this month, and the electric car firm has officially previewed the model by revealing its headlight design.
Polestar revealed a top-down shot of the 4’s badge and front headlight, revealing a sleek, narrow design similar to the Polestar 2 and upcoming Polestar 3 SUV. The model will be fully unveiled at an international debut in Shanghai on 18 April.
The 4, which Polestar says will be its fastest production car so far, will be the first model in the Polestar line-up to feature several new design cues and sustainable materials which have previously been seen in Polestar’s concept vehicles.
Our spy photographers spotted the 4 hitting public roads for the first time earlier this year. It’s expected the model will launch by the end of the year, as an all-electric rival to the Porsche Macan.
Pictures sent to Autocar showed the rakish crossover-coupé donning light camouflage for its first round of public testing, having previously only been shown under a sheet in official teasers.
The 4 is destined to fill the gap between the Polestar 2 saloon and the recently revealed Polestar 3 SUV and will be the third series-production car the brand will put on sale.
The Polestar 5 super-saloon will follow in 2024 and the drop-top Polestar 6 GT will arrive a year later to ultimately give a varied line-up of five pure-electric models.
These new shots revealed that it will sit higher off the ground than the 2 but stand shorter – and have a smaller cabin – than the 3.
Obvious rivals in the sporting electric crossover segment include the Kia EV6 GT, the new Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV and the upcoming Porsche Macan EV.
Polestar boss Thomas Inglenlath previously positioned the 4 as the SUV sibling to the 2 but suggested it would offer comparable utlity to the larger 3, saying: “This car is slightly smaller [than the 3], but we will not compromise much on the interior length. It's slightly more ground-hugging and has a bit more of a coupé type of roofline."
At that time, he also suggested it could arrive on sale with a price tag of around $55,000 (£45,000), but latest projections from the brand suggest the 4 will be priced from £49,000-£66,000, slotting it neatly between the lower-slung 2 and larger 3.
It's due to enter production later this year in the same factory in Ningbo, China, where Polestar sibling brand Zeekr has recently started building its Zeekr 001 performance shooting brake.
The 4 is also set to share that car's PMA1 architecture, meaning it's likely to offer a choice of rear- and four-wheel drive (like the Polestar 2) and could pack as much as 536bhp in its most potent form.
The 001 can be optioned with one of the largest batteries currently available in any production EV, at 140kWh, for a claimed range of 641 miles - although that's limited to 1000 cars. The 001 is normally offered with 86kWh and 100kWh items, giving either 339 or 460 miles of claimed range, and they're likely to be offered in any technically related Polestar model.
Polestar suggested the 4 will ultimately offer more than 600km (373 miles) of range between charges.