2025 Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor review: Australian first drive

If ever there were a vehicle to dispel the myth that electric cars are not suitable for our big, brown, wide land, then this is it. It’s the 2025 Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor (LRSM), and it arrives in Australia promising 706km of driving range between charges.

That’s a significant number, and one that could sway some prospective buyers of EVs who may have been hesitant to consider going electric.

The single-motor Polestar 3 slots in as the entry-level model in an already impressive broader dual-motor Polestar 3 range from the Chinese-owned Swedish brand.

It gives away outright performance in prioritising driving range, but has that diluted what makes the twin-motor Polestar 3 such an engaging and fun EV? Or has the focus on range – and a more affordable package – hit the luxury EV sweet spot?

Priced from $118,420 before on-road costs and options, the Polestar 3 LRSM undercuts its range-mates by a significant margin. The mid-spec Polestar 3 Long Range Dual Motor (LRDM) starts from $132,720, while the LRDM with Performance Pack kicks off at $144,420, all prices before on-road costs.

It might be the entry-level Polestar 3, but the LRSM certainly doesn't look or feel like a budget stripper.

The key difference between it and its pricier siblings comes down to the powertrain. All three are fitted with the same 111kWh battery (107kWh usable), but whereas the two Long Range Dual Motor variants are all-wheel drive, the LRSM, as the name suggests, features just one electric motor powering the rear wheels.

And yet the LRSM doesn't suffer for it, despite losing straight-line speed, as well as a trick Borg Warner torque-vectoring set-up, and adaptive air suspension. It makes up for those omissions with better efficiency that elevates the LRSM into the stratosphere in terms of driving range.

Where the Polestar LRSM loses very little is in its list of standard equipment and design philosophy. This is no budget stripper, not by a long stretch.

Standard equipment highlights run to 20-inch alloy wheels, dusk-sensing LED head- and tail-lights, a 14.5-inch infotainment touchscreen, 9.0-inch digital driver's display, powered tailgate, panoramic glass roof, three-zone climate control, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, power adjustable and heated front seats, and a full suite of Polestar’s advanced driver assist and safety systems detailed later in this review.

Our test car was fitted with a smattering of optional extras, bumping the price up to $130,120 before on-road costs, or around $143,500 drive-away (in NSW).

As is the modern way, manufacturers like to bundle up options into one big, juicy, premium pack.

In the case of our test car, the $9000 Plus pack adds a swag of premium goodies: a 25-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system, head-up display, seat heating for the outboard rear seats, a heated steering wheel, powered steering wheel adjustment, active road noise cancellation, and soft-close doors are highlights of the Plus pack.

Individual options fitted to our test car include metallic paint, a handsome shade of Midnight Blue ($2000) and rear privacy glass ($700).

Aside from its siblings, the Polestar 3’s natural rivals straddle the gap between mainstream and premium. The Kia EV9 GT-Line AWD Long Range is priced from $121,000 before on-road costs, and while it does offer all-wheel-drive grip, its stated range of 505km is over 200km less than the LRSM’s 706km.

The $124,990 Volvo EX90 presents an interesting proposition. It shares much of its powertrain with its Polestar sister brand but does offer seven seats (against the Polestar’s five-seat layout) and all-wheel-drive grip. But it too falls well short on claimed range quoted at 570km.

The clean and uncluttered interior oozes with Scandi minimalism, offering a relaxing place to spend time. Devoid of switchgear, other than a single large volume dial in the centre console that also pauses and plays audio tracks, the interior could be described as spartan. But that’s to undersell the clean lines and elegant materials that wouldn’t look out of place in a glossy design magazine.

The seats might be covered in fabric, but as per the Polestar playbook, thought has gone into the source and construction of the WeaveTech fabric, a bio-sourced vegan PVC-based material utilising just 1 per cent chemical plasticisers.

That’s a common theme throughout Polestar, where discarded fishing nets, recycled plastic bottles and even aluminium and steel sourced from industrial waste underpin much of the 3’s construction.

The steering wheel too takes a minimalist approach, its unlabelled ‘contextual buttons’ on both the left and right spokes a little mysterious as to their function until you become acquainted with the 3’s digital set-up.

The seats themselves are nicely contoured and offer good support in all the right areas and proved comfortable on long drives.

The digital centrepiece of the cabin is the large portrait-oriented touchscreen that not only hosts the Polestar’s infotainment system, but also almost all of its vital functions.

It’s a slick system, with stylish design and razor-sharp responses to inputs, but the over-reliance on the system for much of the 3’s critical functions is bothersome.

Everything from adjusting the steering wheel, side mirrors, climate controls and even opening the glovebox is effected through the screen. Additionally, some functions – such as steering wheel and side mirror adjustments – work in tandem with the mysterious ‘contextual buttons’ on the steering wheel itself. Of course, both of these functions are set-and-forget for the most part, so the impact isn’t as great as it might sound.

The second row benefits from the Polestar 3’s five-seat layout. It’s a point of differentiation from its twin-under-the-skin Volvo EX90 sibling that trades on its seven-seater status.

But that lack of third row pays dividends in terms of back seat comfort, at once roomy and comfortable. All the key areas – foot, knee, leg and head – are well catered for; the second-row seats offering plenty of comfort for passengers.

Even the middle seating position is roomy thanks to the absence of a transmission tunnel, the completely flat floor a boon for wandering feet. The seat back is touch firm, however, the victim of a fold-down armrest that protrudes into your back.

That armrest, when down, reveals a pair of cupholders, while other amenities include door pockets that can take bottles, separate climate controls with air vents, two USB Type-C outlets and ISOFIX child seat anchors on the outboard seats. Those outboard seats are heated too, thanks to the inclusion of the optional Plus pack on our test car.

The Polestar 3’s big 111kWh battery does impact on cargo capacity. There’s 484 litres to play with the second row in play, expanding to 1411L with the back seats folded away. An additional 32L of storage can be found up front under the bonnet, the ideal spot for storing charging cables.

With a reliance on the 14.5-inch infotainment screen for not only entertainment and communication, but also many of the Polestar 3’s vital functions, you’d want the system to be a good one. And it is.

Yes, it looks cool and contemporary, with a minimalist approach to the design of the app-based interface. Every element – including the bespoke font – has been carefully designed, a refreshingly clean layout that’s intuitive to use, much like your smartphone.

Google’s Android Automotive operating system underpins the infotainment system in the Polestar 3 and brings with it some preloaded goodies such as Google Maps and Spotify.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both wireless and wired, are standard now (Apple CarPlay is only a recent addition to the Polestar 3) and we experienced zero issues using CarPlay wirelessly, the system quick to pair and with a stable connection throughout.

A wireless smartphone charging pad nestled in the centre console is on hand to keep devices juiced up.

The 9.0-inch digital driver's display, small and unobtrusive yet data rich, sits atop the steering column. It can be configured to show as much (full-screen mapping) or as little information (digital speedo) as you want.

It’s worth noting too that both screens use what Polestar calls “advanced lighting technique” to reduce sun glare off the screens, ensuring the interface remains clearly visible in the brightest ambient conditions.

I’ve already touched on Polestar’s reliance on screens in lieu of physical switches and dials, but the brand has done a good job of ensuring the user experience remains intuitive and seamless.

Simply, the top half of the screen is given over to smartphone mirroring and the Polestar’s many native apps, while the bottom is reserved for the more commonly used functions, such as climate controls. There is also an area reserved on the very bottom of the screen for shortcuts to the most-recently used apps. No need to swipe through multiple screens multiple times.

The Polestar has not been put through the ANCAP testing regime as yet, but it did recently achieve a five-star safety score from its Euro NCAP counterpart.

Euro NCAP assessed the Polestar 3 at 90 per cent for adult occupant protection, 93 per cent for child occupant, 79 per cent vulnerable road user and 83 for its safety assist systems.

While unconfirmed, ANCAP usually takes Euro NCAP scores for its own assessments, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest the Polestar 3 will wear an Australian five-star ANCAP safety rating at some point in the near future.

As a brand born out of and closely aligned with safety pioneer Volvo, the Polestar 3 is chock-a-block full of the latest safety technologies buyers have come to expect today.

Using a combination of sensors and cameras located around the vehicle, the Polestar 3's full suite of technologies includes autonomous emergency braking with vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-changing and lane-keeping assists, steering assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, driver monitoring, and park assist.

And a full complement of nine airbags – including front-centre – covers both rows of occupants.

The Polestar 3 is covered by the brand’s standard five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, while the 111kWh battery is warranted for eight years or 160,000km. Both coverages are par for the course in today’s auto landscape.

Servicing the Polestar 3 is complimentary for the first five years or 100,000km, with Polestar suggesting conditional-based servicing is required every two years or 30,000km.

Polestar 3 owners also benefit from five years of complimentary 24/7 roadside assistance.

This is the big ticket item, the unique selling point of the Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor.

With a claimed WLTP laboratory-tested range of 706km, the Polestar 3 LRSM offers Australians the longest range of any electric vehicle currently available in Australia. And by some margin.

There are any number of EVs available locally that offer over 600km of range (BMW iX, Tesla Model 3, Hyundai Ioniq 6) on a single charge and one or two that provide over 650km (Polestar 2), but none have cracked the 700km barrier. Yet.

Of course, a laboratory in Europe is very different to real roads Australia, and in our real-world experience, we couldn’t quite eke out that 706km headline number.

To be fair to the LRSM, the bulk of our 800km-plus road trip was spent at 100km/h on motorways and country roads, the natural enemy of driving range. Even so, we were comfortably getting in excess of 600km on a single charge, using 17.5kWh of energy against Polestar’s 17.6kWh–20.3kWh claim. That equates to a highway-skewed range of around 630km.

Adding urban traffic and the ability to harvest energy through braking and coasting should see that projected range rise.

The Polestar 3’s battery will take 250kW DC fast charging giving a 10–80 per cent charge time of around 30 minutes. An 11kW AC home-installed wallbox offers a 0–100 per cent charge time of around 11h 13min.

Our 820km road trip necessitated one charge, stopping for 30 minutes in Bathurst, NSW and adding 25kWh to the battery at a cost of $16.75. We used the 30 minutes to grab a bite to eat and take a bathroom break.

The final run home to Sydney over the Blue Mountains provided an interesting insight into energy regeneration. The run, almost all downhill, from Katoomba to Penrith afforded plenty of opportunity to coast and harvest some energy. By the time we hit the freeway just outside Penrith at the foothills, a distance of around 50km, our trip meter showed 50km more range than what we started with at Katoomba.

Unlike its all-wheel-drive, twin-motor siblings in the line-up, the Polestar 3 Long Range Single motor utilises just a single permanent electric motor driving the rear wheels.

It makes a quoted 220kW and 490Nm, helping to propel the 2.4-tonne SUV from 0–100km/h in a claimed 7.8 seconds.

That number belies just how brisk the LRSM feels off the line. Sure, it lacks that visceral punch in the guts acceleration enjoyed by its more powerful siblings, but for everyday use around town, the single-motor Polestar 3 is perfectly capable.

Ride comfort is excellent too, despite the LRSM missing out on the adaptive air suspension set-up of its more expensive siblings. Polestar’s engineers have prioritised comfort over sportiness, and the result is a composed and compliant ride and handling package.

Out on the highway – and we spent a good chunk of our 820km cruising between 80–110km/h – the LRSM proved an effortless long-haul companion. Overtaking is a breeze thanks to the instant torque delivery of its lone electric motor while the ride itself remains nicely cushioned, even over the kinds of scrappy surfaces our rural roads are blighted with.

Despite weighing almost 2.5 tonnes, the Polestar 3 never feels like a heavy or lumbering behemoth. Instead, its big proportions still manage to feel light and athletic.

The steering too feels nicely reassuring, with a tactility and accuracy that feels just right.

Brake pedal feel is nicely modulated too, the transition between regenerative and friction braking not felt through the pedal. That’s not always a given in this new world of electric vehicles, where some regenerative systems lack the reassuring pedal feel of friction brakes and then telegraph the transition between the two with a clunky feel through your right foot. That’s not the case here, where the transition is seamless.

Perhaps the biggest praise that can be heaped on the Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor is just how normal it felt from behind the wheel. Yes, it’s an electric vehicle, but without that neck-snapping surge of acceleration a lot of EVs trade on. And that, combined with a real-world driving range easily in excess of 600km – and in the right circumstances nudging 700km – makes it more accessible to more buyers.

The trade-off in performance over range hasn’t diminished the Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor one little bit.

It offers a different slice of the same pie; a stylish and comfortable electric SUV makes up for what it loses in performance – and driver tech – with a pleasingly normal everyday driving experience.

The elephant in the room, though, is that 706km claimed driving range, which we didn't get near on our extended road trip. Still, the 630km or so we did achieve speaks to a road trip and weekend-away-friendly electric car that takes the stress and worry out of longer EV drives.

The 2025 Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor is an impressively designed electric SUV that answers a lot of questions around range and the viability of an EV as a long-haul tourer.

Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.

Read more about Rob Margeit