A few days after revealing the final version of the Polestar 5, which is not expected to hit the market before 2025, Polestar has started production of the Polestar 4, with the first deliveries to customers scheduled for 2023 in China. The two new models, to add to the brand’s catalog, differ in many characteristics but share an element that is generating some curiosity: both do without the rear window.
According to all indications, the decision is not merely aesthetic: it also has a technical explanation. According to a representative of the Swedish company, the absence of the rear window not only serves the purpose of allowing a more fluid design of the vehicles’ silhouette, but also brings functional advantages: “With the Polestar Precept, we were able to present a new amazing experience for rear passengers by removing the rear window and moving the headrest, which plays an integral safety role, now placed further back. This means that now, rear passengers can have a unique experience in our SUV coupe”, said Maximilian Missoni, head of design at Polestar.
The designers of the Polestar 5 also wanted the roofline to be as low as possible in order to provide more elegance, even suggesting that the roof should be made of glass, from the windshield to the trunk. A complex piece to produce. Therefore, Polestar decided to do without the rear window in the 5 as well, instead of changing the original design and compromising the structural rigidity of the whole.
In both models, rear visibility is ensured by a high-definition screen capable of displaying real-time information from a roof-mounted rear camera, which, according to Polestar, provides “a much wider field of view than most modern cars”. The digital display can be deactivated to allow the driver to see what is happening, for example, in the rear seats whenever necessary. But it does not fulfill both functions simultaneously, like the “old-fashioned” center rearview mirror…
