Polestar 3 review - Reliability & safety

Polestar is a brand that still sells in smaller numbers than most others in the UK, so we’re yet to receive enough responses from owners for it to feature in our Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, let alone for the brand-new Polestar 3 model. The car does feature lots of technology from previous parent company Volvo, however, and that brand came in 16th place in terms of customer satisfaction in 2024. Reliability was slightly worse than average, with 26% of Volvo owners reporting an issue in the first year of ownership, but that’s not necessarily indicative solely of electric models with which the Polestar 3 shares technology.

How safe is the Polestar 3?

Safety as a priority is a trait passed down to Polestar from its previous parent company Volvo, and as we predicted, the Polestar 3 has received the full five stars when crash-tested by Euro NCAP. It comes with a long list of safety equipment including lane keep assist and departure warning, blind spot warning, driver fatigue monitoring among other tech. It’s also one of the first cars on sale to be offered with optional LiDAR that can scan the road ahead, potentially making it capable of autonomous driving in future.

This all added up to give it high scores from Euro NCAP, with 90% in the adult occupant category and 83% for Safety Assist technology. It also managed 93% for child occupant protection, which is the highest score of any model tested in almost a decade.

However, it’s not all flawless. For instance, the speed-limit recognition would quite often pick up the incorrect speed for the road and then emit a frustrating audible warning. 

What are the Polestar 3 service intervals?

Polestar offers free servicing for the 3 for the first three years or 31,250 miles, whichever comes first. Polestar doesn’t specify the intervals, but the brand will contact you when your car needs maintenance, or the car will show a message when it’s due.

What is the warranty on the Polestar 3?

The Polestar 3’s warranty looks a little sub-par by modern standards, as you’re covered for just three years or up to 60,000 miles if anything goes wrong. In contrast, BMW and Mercedes offer a warranty for the same time frame, but with no mileage cap. It’s a shame the warranty isn’t longer, with many other brands such as Lexus offering more peace of mind – just like parent company Toyota, your Lexus is covered for up to 10 years or 100,000 miles, so long as you get it serviced annually (or every 10,000 miles) via a main dealer. The Polestar 3’s battery has an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty, which is about the industry average.