Volvo’s premium EV spinoff brand, Polestar, is delivering its battery-electric crossover SUV, the Polestar 3, to U.S. customers, with initial deliveries coming from the company’s Chengdu, China factory, with eventual production shifting to a Charleston, South Carolina plant.

A day spent driving the Polestar 3, in both standard and Performance Pack versions, around Jackson, Wyoming revealed the comfortable, competent car that you’d expect from the company’s Swedish engineers.

The specs are solidly competitive in the segment, with either 315 miles or 279 miles of EPA-estimated driving range from the 111-kilowatt-hour prismatic-cell lithium-ion battery pack, depending on whether the car is equipped with the optional Performance Pack. That option not only boosts peak power output from 489 horsepower and 620-lb.-ft. to 517 hp and 671-lb.-ft., it also includes a switch from 21-inch wheels to 22-inch wheels. The extra mass of those larger wheels is the source of the reduction in driving range.

During the admittedly tough mountainous driving cycle in the Wyoming and Idaho mountains, I saw real-world range of just 237 miles for both the standard car and for the Performance Pack-equipped model, probably because the standard car was fitted with optional 22-inch wheels. This is in line with other EVs, whose range seems unrealistically exaggerated.

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Polestar product development engineer Christian Samson, nevertheless describes the EPA rating as the most realistic of the government range-scoring schemes, terming Europe’s WLTP test cycle as “complete crap” for its unrealistic results. “Nobody can ever get that range,” he observed. “The Chinese test is even worse.”

Samson’s goal was to provide a connected-to-the-road feeling, with good feedback from the steering, and he’s achieved it in the Polestar 3, which demonstrates both accuracy and feel in the steering. While Rolls-Royce likes to describe the experience of riding in one of their cars as a “sky hook” that suspends the car, floating above the road, Polestar has the opposite philosophy, said Samson. “We want to have a ground hook,” he said, providing tactile feedback about the car’s handling.

Similarly, he wants the car’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) to function in the background as a safety net, not to grab control of the car from the driver. “ASAS is slowly claiming control of the driving cycle,” he complained. Intrusive systems that motivate drivers to deactivate them fail to serve their intended purpose, he pointed out.

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Tesla fans will probably appreciate the touch-screen-centric approach, but many of the functions on the infotainment display would be more easily used if they were operated by dedicated buttons or knobs. POLESTAR

“Why do driver support systems make me drive like a drunk?” wrestling with the steering wheel, Samson asked. They should be augmenting, not hindering. On this count, Samson’s work shines through as the car easily handled the rain and snow mix through the switchbacks of Teton Pass without discernable intervention.

The Polestar 3’s front seats are comfortable, as you’d expect from a Swedish brand, with the usual adjustability and temperature controls. Despite the touchscreen-centric driver interface, there is a large physical rotary volume knob for the infotainment in the center of the console.

The Bowers and Wilkins audio controlled by that volume knob is predictably impressive, though the question in the age of compressed digital music is how often drivers will supply the stereo with sufficiently high-quality material for the sound system to demonstrate its true potential.

But too many other common functions are left to the touch screen, which requires a more assertive press than other such systems. The Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running Android Automotive OS assures a lag-free response to inputs once you’ve successfully triggered action with a sufficiently firm press.

Many functions are selected through directional touchpads on the left and right sides of the steering wheel, but because these are multifunction pads whose purpose changes, they aren’t labeled and using them is neither intuitive nor obvious.

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What does work well is the electric power delivery and regeneration. Control through the accelerator pedal is precise and the regeneration has three levels: none, light, and normal, which provides excellent one-pedal driving with little need for the brake pedal in normal driving.

The Polestar 3 also lets the driver choose whether the car stays stopped when the driver releases the brake or whether it tugs at the brake in the manner of a combustion vehicle with an automatic transmission. This is not only more familiar for drivers but it makes parking and squeezing the car into close quarters easier because there’s never a need to touch the accelerator when you want the car to creep forward a few inches and don’t want it to lurch too far forward as the result of applying the accelerator.

The Polestar 3's front wing provides the appearance of a blunt front for SUV traditionalists while ducting air smoothly over the hood for reduced drag. POLESTAR

Things aren’t as good in the back seat. It feels more snug than the back seat of the Genesis GV80 (which has an electrified version coming soon) and while it is probably comparable in size to the back seats of the vehicles built on GM’s Ultium platform, such as the Chevrolet Blazer, Cadillac Lyriq, Honda Prologue, and Acura ZDX, the seat is less comfortable in the Polestar.

That’s because the rear seatback angle is very upright and it does not recline. All of the Ultium vehicles have a reclining seat back in the rear seat, as does the Genesis, make all their back seats a more pleasant place to spend time.

With pricing of $88,100 for the Polestar 3 Launch Edition and $93,100 for the Launch Edition with the Performance Pack, the Polestar 3 is facing competition from many premium brands. In the cases of the Cadillac and Acura, these cost much less and are eligible for the $7,500 federal tax rebate that the Polestar does not receive, further widening the gap. Expect the Genesis GV80 Electrified to also come in at a lower price, making the market tough for the Polestar even after assembly switches from China to South Carolina.