NEW POLESTAR 5 GETS ECO CONSCIOUS AND STILL LOOKS HOT TO GO

Polestar, the Swedish performance brand, has spent the last five years setting up as a separate carmaker within the Geely empire, and so far has tackled the electric saloon market with its 2 model. That's no small feat.

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Last year, its range practically trebled overnight with the 3 and 4 SUVs, and now Polestar has its sights on the ultra-premium and exclusive electric four-door GT market.

We've had an early drive of a pre-production car to see if the reality can meet the ambition.

WHAT'S NEW?

The Polestar 5 sits on a brand new, scalable bonded aluminium platform, it has a new battery and 800V charging technology, and uses a ton of environmentally-friendly and recycled materials.

WHAT'S UNDER THE BONNET?

Beneath the slippery shape lies a 112kWh (106kWh useable) NMC battery pack, all helping with the car's torsional rigidity. Its 800V system allows ultra-rapid charging capability of up to 350kW (a 10-80% top-up by a 350kW charger will take 22 minutes).

There are two flavours of Polestar 5, the Dual Motor and Performance, with the former delivering a WLTP-tested range of 416 miles, and the top-spec Performance gives 351 miles.

And it's powerful - very powerful. The lesser version packs 737bhp, while the Performance has a mighty 871bhp at its disposal.