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Polestar 3 Will Have Top Power Position Compared to Volvo XC90’s Replacement

When Volvo revealed it would produce the Polestar 3 in its Ridgeville plant in the U.S., that may have given people the impression that the new electric SUV would be just a badge-engineered version of the XC90 successor. In an interview with Car and Driver during the IAA 2021, Thomas Ingenlath stressed it would be a different animal. The Polestar CEO said it would have a “top power position” and only two rows of seats.
Polestar 3 6 photos
Photo: João Kleber do Amaral
Polestar 3Polestar 3Polestar 3Volvo Ridgeville Plant in South CarolinaCMA Platform
Despite both cars being built over Volvo’s new electric platform – the SPA2 – Polestar wants its SUV to be recognized for better performance. That was how Polestar emerged in the first place: as Volvo’s performance division.

However, the company’s choice to give the Polestar 2 front-wheel drive in its single motor derivative shows it has more to do with Volvo than they would probably be willing to admit. That’s the typical choice for brands that want to praise safety, not performance. Considering the Polestar 3 will also have a single-motor option, we bet its front wheels will be the ones that will receive the resources from the power unit.

Polestar’s attempt to stand out from the yet-unnamed Volvo XC90's replacement will relate to design, power and seats. The sloping roofline revealed by the company’s teaser hints that the Polestar 3 would not get a third row of seats, as its Volvo counterpart will undoubtedly offer as an option.

According to what Ingenlath told Car and Driver, having only two rows of seats in such a long car will give buyers a “luxurious feeling” in the second row, with plenty of room to spare. The “top power position” the vehicle is set to feature will probably require new motors unless the ones used by the Volvo XC90 successor and the SPA2 architecture are only restricted by software. It would not be the first time that happened.

Tesla did that with some Model 3 Long Range units that use the 1120980 motor – the same one the Model 3 Performance comes with. This is what made it possible for Ingenext to turn these cars into high-speed machines using a performance module.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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