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After fourteen punishing hours barreling down the mid-Atlantic asphalt from Pennsylvania to Orlando, you start to learn the ins and outs of a vehicle. Marc Pochet, piloting his 2025 Polestar 3 on a 1,000-mile EV odyssey, documented the entire journey in a Facebook post.
His review of the Polestar 3 was a mix of praise, frustration, and observation about what it means to live with a vehicle that’s still relatively unknown in the United States.
“Just finished a 1000-mile journey from PA to Orlando.
The Good:
The range of this car, combined with better upper-end charging than my 21 Tesla Model Y, made this road trip feel almost like traveling in a gas vehicle. We never sat just waiting for a charge to finish.
The seats are SO comfortable. We spent 14 hours on the road and felt pretty good at the end of the day.
The Mediocre:
The Pilot Assist is good, but not terribly refined. It tends to ping pong at times when the Tesla AP was so much more refined. AP doesn’t have lane change, so that was nice for the trip.
The Bad:
Well documented here, but the car was not designed for the heat. It was over 98°F most of my drive. The AC worked fine while moving, but when sitting still, like at a charging stop, the passenger cabin gets a blast of warmish air.
I had a few charging sessions that were derated, which I presume was heat-related. One session was at the end of the day after 14 hours of driving (note we had another 3.5 hours the next morning to finish the trip). The car was warm, but it was across the street from our hotel, so it didn’t impact our trip as an extra few minutes weren’t changing our evening at the hotel. The second one was mid-afternoon in the heat of the day here in Orlando. It was probably 105 in the parking lot. I never saw more than 120 kW charge rate starting at 8% SOC….I was getting 190kw all day.
The Terrible:
The navigation was a total failure from about NC through GA. Many of the Tesla chargers that are available to other EV brands were not properly showing up in the Navigation as charging options. I fought with it for a while at one of our stops before jumping over to ABRP and the Tesla app to double-check that my planned stops were OK. An uneducated EV owner may have followed the navigation and added like 2 hours to their trip.
Love the car so far though. I get lots of questions about it when I am at Tesla chargers. Everyone seems to love the look of them when they see them. I even saw several passengers on I-95 staring at it as we passed them.
I didn’t see a single Polestar anywhere on the 1000-mile trip. There was a P2 here on the Disney Resort property when we arrived, but that was it.”
The Polestar 3 is a luxury electric crossover aimed straight at the Model Y’s heart, but without Tesla’s brand recognition or its cult following.
Polestar 3 CCS Fast‑Charging & EPA Range Breakdown (310–350 mi)
- All models feature this, supporting fast charging via CCS and delivering combined ranges estimated at 310–350 miles EPA
- Dual-motor about 310 mi EPA, while the RWD version offers a class-leading 350 mi
- RWD starts at $68,900, dual-motor AWD at $74,800 (some sources cite $67,500–$70k, variation due to fees)
- EPA figures show ~10 hr at 240 V, battery efficiency ~39 kWh/100 mi, spacious luxury SUV format (similar to Volvo EX90)
What stood out most in Pochet’s account wasn’t just the comfort, though the seats earned high praise. No, it was the car’s behavior over 14 hours of continuous duty that mattered.
The charging system, which Pochet says felt as seamless as refueling a gasoline vehicle, mostly delivered, until Florida’s sweltering furnace turned the battery into a hobbled athlete. Peak charging rates dropped from 190kW to just 120kW in the heat. It didn’t ruin the trip, but it exposed a weakness.
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Several other owners, including forum users and Pochet himself, suspect temperature-sensitive components like grill shutters or heat exchangers may be culprits. These aren’t deal-breakers, but they’re not footnotes either.
The navigation issues, however, felt more like a betrayal than a bug. Somewhere near the South Carolina border, the car forgot how to route to compatible Tesla chargers, chargers that should have been front and center, now that access has expanded to non-Tesla EVs.
How to Plan Polestar 3 Road Trips with ABRP & the Tesla App
Pochet switched to A Better Routeplanner (ABRP) and the Tesla app to compensate.
“An uneducated EV owner may have followed the navigation and added 2 hours to their trip.”
Still, Polestar’s community seems both aware and engaged. When Pochet posted about lane change features, commenter Ian Band noted, “With PA, if you use your turn signal, it will move you to the adjacent lane.” That kind of real-world utility is the hallmark of a well-tuned ADAS system, even if Pochet still called the Pilot Assist “ping-pongy” compared to Tesla’s Autopilot.
Like many modern EVs, the Polestar 3 is both impressive and occasionally infuriating. It doesn’t take shortcuts, but it still trips over its own cleverness at times.
Polestar Q2 & H1 2025 Sales Surge: 18,049 Units & 51% YoY Growth
- Q2 2025 saw 18,049 Polestar units sold, a 38% jump from Q2 2024, driven largely by Polestar 3 and 4 SUV sales
- First half of 2025 surpassed 30,300 sales, up ~51% over H1 2024, signaling strong global momentum
- Q1 volume grew 76% YoY, with 12,304 units sold, signaling the Polestar 3’s significant role in the rebound
- Polestar shipped about 1,650 units in the first half of 2025 in the U.S., after broader global success
Aesthetically, the car is a stunner. Pochet reported getting stared at on I-95 and fielding questions at Superchargers. In a nation of visual sameness, where one crossover blends into another like stripes on a zebra, the Polestar’s Nordic minimalism turns heads. And yet, Pochet also noted that he “didn’t see a single Polestar anywhere on the 1000-mile trip.” That isolation, oddly, might be part of the appeal.
So what do we make of it all? After a thousand miles and 14 hours of highway communion, Pochet didn’t abandon the Polestar 3. He liked it. A lot. But he also saw its limitations with the clarity only road fatigue can bring.
The vehicle is no half-baked science project; it’s comfortable, well-mannered, and, crucially, usable. But it’s still being refined, much like the brand itself. The navigation must improve. The thermal performance needs calibration for American summers.
But the 3 is a new kind of road machine, still stretching its legs on the blacktop of a country that hasn’t quite decided what its automotive future looks like. But it’s coming, and it’s silent, sculpted, and Swedish.
Image Sources: Polestar Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
