Watch out Porsche, Polestar is working on a proper Taycan rival

NUNEATON, ENGLAND—Any day is a good day that involves a visit to a proving ground, even if that includes a two-hour drive fresh from a transatlantic flight. And this was a good day: a visit to Polestar’s UK research and development center, based at the Motor Industry Research Association’s proving grounds outside Coventry, England, to find out how it’s getting on with one of its next electric vehicles, a purposeful-looking performance sedan called the Polestar 5.

Until now, the Polestar EVs we’ve seen have used platforms shared across other brands within the Geely group. The Polestar 2 fastback sedan uses the same CMA platform as the Volvo XC40, and next year’s Polestar 3 SUV—which will be built in South Carolina—uses the group’s SPA2 platform.

That involves some compromises, though; those platforms were designed to be built in high volumes, with attributes like ride comfort prioritized over handling prowess. That’s fine for, say, a luxury SUV—even a sporty one. But if you were a brand wanting to build a competitor for the Porsche Taycan, you might want to start from scratch.

Which Polestar has done for the Polestar 5. It’s a production version of 2020’s Precept concept and uses a bonded and extruded aluminum chassis similar in concept to the one you’d find in a Lotus or Aston Martin. As an approach it’s better suited to lower volume than a steel chassis, and the end result is usually extremely stiff thanks to the size of the bonded joints, which are much larger (and therefore much stronger) than would be possible with welding.

Much else is also new. “You have to have a suspension system which allows you to have a nose which is this low, and these lovely lines, but delivers not just on your spirited driving dynamics performance, but also on comfort. And when you have a very short amount of travel, that becomes difficult,” explained Pete Allen, head of Polestar UK R&D.

That would have been impossible using Geely group’s SPA2 platform, but entirely new front suspension means that Polestar designer Max Missoni was able to keep the front of the 5 low while still fitting large 21-inch wheels. They look the part, but I still can’t help mourning the days when 18-inch wheels were considered large. The size here might be partly to contain the fairly massive brake discs that lurk behind the wheels’ spokes, which work together with regenerative braking to slow this EV down in a hurry.