Following up on the debuts of the mid-size Polestar 3 and compact Polestar 4 SUVs, the Swedish EV manufacturer will bring out its flagship Polestar 5 fastback sedan sometime next year. The Polestar 5 will take liberal inspiration from the Precept concept, as our exclusive renderings of the sporty five-door show.
Polestar will apparently back up the 5's appearance with some bona fide performance. The company is gunning directly for Porsche in terms of driving enjoyment, a lofty goal given the Porsche Taycan is one of our favorite EVs to drive quickly.
The Geely subsidiary will reportedly accomplish that goal with a brand-specific aluminum spaceframe chassis and new electric motors, which likely won’t be shared with Volvo. The first auto to receive those enhancements? The 2025 Polestar 5.
What Will It Look Like?
Looking at our renders (pictured here), which were based on leaked patent images from the European Union Intellectual Property Office, it’s clear that the Polestar 5 will take extensive design cues from the Precept show car. It has the same revised take on "Thor’s hammer" lighting that we saw on the Polestar 3 and 4 crossovers, and the split headlight design will feature prominently on the low, pointed front end. Taking the place of a grille will be a so-called "Smart Zone," which debuted on the 3 and proudly features radar and camera equipment behind a glossy panel.
The bodysides are relatively unadorned and crisply styled, but cutaways at the bottom of the doors lead into sharp side skirts, which both look cool and enhance aerodynamics. Expect to see this design feature also show up on the Polestar 6 sports car – as previewed by last year’s O2 concept.
If the patent images are to be believed, the Precept concept’s angular rear end will also show up on the Polestar 5, which features a full-width light bar bookended by blade-like vertical taillights. Squint a bit and you can see some of the raked rear fender profile of the Polestar 1 coupe in the newest member of the family, a thoughtful callback to the automaker’s plug-in hybrid debut product.
Perhaps most controversially, the Polestar 5 won’t get a rear window. Like the recently debuted 4, the flagship sedan will instead rely on a variety of cameras, lidar, and radar to give the driver a clear picture of what’s behind the car.
What's Under The Hood?
Polestar isn’t announcing many specifics about the 5 just yet, but we learned in 2021 that the sporty grand tourer would make use of parent company Geely’s new battery architecture with 800-volt capability, enabling an 80-percent charge speed of 20 minutes using a DC fast charger. The 5’s battery will have a capacity of about 103 kilowatt-hours.
Thanks to new, so-called P10 electric motors, the 2025 Polestar 5 will have a maximum power output of 884 horsepower and 664 pound-feet in its highest spec, neatly rivaling the 750-hp, 774–lb-ft Porsche Taycan Turbo S. We presume there will be cheaper, less powerful versions of the Polestar 5 available for those who don’t need the grunt, including even single-motor options. Notably, the P10 motor features a built-in two-speed transmission for improved performance.
What Will The Range Be?
That 103-kWh battery should be good for a total range of 372 miles in its most efficient form, as we learned when the car showed up in heavily camouflaged form to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed last year. If that’s the case, it would handily trounce the Taycan, which is EPA-rated at 246 miles at the most. It doesn’t quite match up to the Tesla Model S or Lucid Air, however, both of which exceed 400 miles of range.
How Much Will It Cost?
The 2025 Polestar 5 will likely be the most expensive vehicle in the company’s lineup, eclipsing the $85,300 starting price of the Polestar 3. By how much is anyone’s guess, but considering its intended competitive set, the Polestar 5 could be a $90,000 proposition to start, rising to $150,000 or so in fully loaded trim.
For comparison, the Porsche Taycan starts at $90,900 in base, rear-drive form, rising to nearly $190,000 for a Turbo S. The $104,900 Audi E-Tron GT and $143,900 RS E-Tron GT are other likely rivals, as is the $84,990 Tesla Model S and its $104,990 Plaid variant. Finally, the Lucid Air, which ranges in price from $87,400 to $249,000, will serve as a foil to the Swedish EV.
Where Will It Be Built?
Polestar hasn’t announced specific production plans for the 5, but the automaker will build the upcoming 3 in a facility in South Carolina. It’s more likely, however, that the sedan will be built on a specific production line in China. Reports suggest that the company will build an entire factory to build the Polestar 5, incorporating environmentally friendly techniques to ensure the facility is carbon-neutral.
When Will We See It?
The Swedish EV manufacturer has said it will reveal one new vehicle per year for the foreseeable future. That meant the Polestar 3 in 2022 and the Polestar 4 in 2023, so it’s likely we’ll have to wait until next year to see the Polestar 5 in all its glory. Expect the fastback sedan to actually hit dealer showrooms in late 2024 as a 2025 model.
