POLESTAR 5

With Lotus Elise-style construction, a super-thin battery and no chassis electrickery, this could be a purist's Porsche Taycan

- ILLYA VERPRAET

The new Polestar 5 is an engineer's dream come true. Whereas previous Polestars have all been based on a platform shared with other Geely group products, this sports saloon was effectively a clean-sheet design.

As a result, it isn't just another platform-sharing EV with stupid power (although it does have up to 872bhp, because it's still the way these things are done). It's based on its own Polestar Performance Architecture, which, unusually, is a bonded extruded aluminium chassis. While there are still plenty of shared electrical bits, this allowed Polestar to go all out, without the compromises and limiting factors that usually come with a shared platform.

It's called the 5 because it's Polestar's fifth car, but they could have called it the 1 because, much more than that plugin hybrid coupé of 2019, this car is supposed to be a manifesto of what the brand is about, which is EVs with great design, driving dynamics and sustainability.

Where most electric saloons have cramped interiors (Porsche Taycan and Lotus Emeya) or otherwise feel odd because they're practically an SUV wearing saloon skin (BMW i5 and Genesis Electrified G80), the 5 was designed from the start around that chassis, with double wishbones at the front, an extra-thin battery and the lowest seat rails they could get Recaro to make, all so it would actually look and feel like a saloon.

You don't even need to put the 5 next to the i5 to see that, visually at least, they have succeeded. Although it looks very wide, it's actually slightly narrower than the Taycan; it just doesn't look it because it's so low.