Polestar Polestar 3 Complaints (2025)

78 consumer complaints on file.

#11649147March 18, 2025
POWER TRAIN, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Changing the gear to Drive while car is already in Drive is the normal way to put the car on cruise control at highway speeds. This should not be permitted when car is under a certain speed. However, it appears you can turn on cruise control when the car is at 0 mph. When car is already in Drive and at a stop (0 mph), shifting gear changer into drive again, and letting foot off brake and lightly tapping the gas pedals causes car to suddenly lurch forward in a highly disproportional manner to any light pressure applied to the gas pedal. Car then continues to increase speed from 0 mph at an alarming rate as if cruise control is on. This is extremely unsafe. One can accidentally shift the gear into drive more than once while at 0mph, and cause the car to unexpectedly lunge forward into someone or something. Moreover, the current gear is not clearly displayed at any time in a large enough font. The gear indicator is only displayed in tiny font on a small screen atop the steering column, and the gear indicator can be easily blocked by the spoke of the steering wheel when wheel is turned. At no time is the current gear indicator displayed on the larger head unit. Furthermore, there is no audible chime or indication that gear has been switched like in other cars. Without the chime, one can easily put the gear into to Drive twice, entering this dangerous condition where car can lurch forward as if cruise control is suddenly on.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11648253March 14, 2025
BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
When parking the car and putting the car in reverse, the cameras are activated and two views are displayed simultaneously on the head unit: 1) a 360 view is displayed; and 2) rear camera view is displayed. However when putting the car in Drive and then back in Reverse again, only the 360 view displays but NOT the Rear view camera. Subsequently drive / reverse sequences during a parking maneuver do not cause the rear camera to display again, The only way to turn the rear camera back on is to keep the car in reverse and then fiddle with the head unit to tap the appropriate button sequences to turn the rear camera back on. This is not safe.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11647969March 12, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
I have had the vehicle for 4 months with no charging issues. All of a sudden the other day, my car would not charge at home AC 14-50 outlet using the Polestar supplied cable at 48 amp max setting to achieve the 9-11 kW charging rate. I lowered the max amp to 15, and the car started charging at a very slow rate of 3 kW. I also tried plugging my car into a slow Chargepoint AC charger and it would not charge at all. I contacted Polestar service and after a few hours, I was finally able to get a hold of the technician and he said there is a defective OBC that needs to be changed but it would take at least 2 weeks and that he would not have a loaner available for me until May. He said it was up to me if I wanted to still enjoy my car and just deal with it charging slower at home or charge using DC fast charger instead, which defeats the purpose and convenience of having an EV to begin with.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11646040March 3, 2025
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Our vehicle will not charge using our home charging system, even though Polestar’s loaner vehicles charge without issue. We took delivery of the Polestar in early January, but it has spent nearly half the time since then at the service center.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11644794February 25, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
AC Charging failure - cannot charge vehicle at home.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11644060February 21, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Vehicle reported an AC charging fault during AC charging indicating charging is not possible. Vehicle at dealer for diagnosis and repair.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11643197February 17, 2025
BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
Activation and persistence of the rearview camera. This situation occurs when selecting reverse, drive and then reverse again in short order (i.e. parallel parking, maneuvering to get into our garage with a narrow driveway and tight turn). When I initially select Reverse, the center display shows both the 360 view and the reverse camera - perfect. When I select Drive to move forward a couple of feet and realign the car, the display switches to show just the 360 view - makes sense. When I then put it back into Reverse to continue parking, the rear view camera does not come back on and only the 360 view is visible. Based on my reading of the regulations, if the car is in reverse, the rear view camera should be active and show on the screen. This is a significant safety issue and one that Polestar claims is not and that their software is operating as designed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11643176February 17, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The vehicle will not charge when plugged in and only charges at 1kW. The problem has been inspected and confirmed by the dealer. There were charging malfunction warnings when the issue occurred.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11640090February 1, 2025
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On a curvy, 2-lane road, moderate traffic both ways, my vehicle performed unnecessary emergency braking for on oncoming vehicle while negotiating an “S” curve. There was no vehicle in my lane in front of me, the oncoming vehicle was squarely in its lane, I was in my lane, both of us had several cars following behind. But we had both just passed the apex of our respective curves and were approaching each other in the “middle” of the “S”. All warning lights flashed, my car applied emergency braking, and vehicle behind me took evasive action to the right shoulder in order to avoid a rear collision.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11640083February 1, 2025
STEERING, LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING
Lane Keeping and Lane Departure: Lane Departure warnings cannot be disabled, but steering interventions also cannot be disabled, contrary to manual’s instructions and control panel button. With feature turned “off”, vehicle still intervenes and self-steers. Car has steered back toward potholes and bicyclists that I was trying to avoid. I could have destroyed a wheel in the 1st case or killed somebody in the second case.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11640079February 1, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Charging system: fails to charge on L2 home charger 1/3 tries.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11639924January 31, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
- Vehicle displays are unresponsive and stay off or black, the display shows key indicators like speed & turn signals. Because the vehicle has no physical buttons you cannot control heat, cannot use backup cameras.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11639744January 30, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Vehicle does not charge on home charger (tesla universal wall charger with 60a breaker) at greater than 14a. Vehicle often shows error message when charging "charging interrupted". Other vehicles charge at speeds up to 50a on the charger. It is available for inspection upon request. Dealer aware of the problem. told to wait for a software update with no ETA. Error message in vehicle reads - ""charging system fault"
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11639559January 30, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
On-board AC charger failure. Confirmed by dealer, parts on 4-6 week backorder. System gave two different messages. One in the driver's display reading "AC charging fault; Book a service" and a separate message in the main display reading "Critical Issue: Charging fault; Charging not possible". These appeared at around 3,400 miles, and while connected to a level 2, 40amp, charger. Attempts to use any form of AC charging after this would not initialize. This issue has been reported by MANY other Polestar 3 owners in the US and globally. There are also several NHTSA manufacturer communications related to this problem, such as DP1035, DP1037, and DP1038.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11637492January 21, 2025
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
There are several issues with this vehicles, but here are the two most glaring safety issues: 1.) Emergency Braking System - on two occasions this was activated with no actual emergency. The first was simply turning left at an intersection. I was ~10ft away from the car in front of me and keeping the same speed or less than that car. The emergency braking was activated and the vehicle came to an almost full stop. The vehicle behind me nearly hit me. There was no reason for this to be activated and nearly caused an accident rather than prevented one. Check out the owner forums - this is happening frequently to multiple owners. [XXX] 2.) The software frequently shows malfunction in critical systems such as suspension and drivetrain which then will randomly disappear with a restart of the car or system. Again there are many stories of this in the owner forums. The most recent fault for us showed a suspension malfunction that then disappeared once it got to the dealer. These random phantom warnings are a safety hazard as drivers may become complacent and begin ignoring them. When a real malfunction happens it could be ignored to catastrophic results. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11634077January 4, 2025
BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
According to the NHTSA documentation, "REQUIREMENT: The rear visibility system must default to the rearview image meeting the requirements of S5.5.1 and S5.5.2 (S6.2.1 and S6.2.2) at the beginning of each backing event regardless of any modification to the field of view the driver has previously selected." The Polestar 3 does show the rearview camera upon initially entering reverse, but if the car is placed in drive and then placed back into reverse, only the top-down "bird-eye" view is displayed. The driver must manually configure the camera to show the rear view again. This would appear to be a violation of this requirement.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11634053January 4, 2025
BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
The rear view parking camera software is defective. If you put the car into reverse, the rear parking camera view comes up (as intended). However, if you put the car into drive and then back into reverse (as if you are making some parking adjustments in a parking lot), the rear parking camera view does NOT come back up. In fact, it requires several additional touches on the car's infotainment touchscreen to bring the rear parking camera view back up.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11634052January 4, 2025
BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA
The issue is with the displaying of the rear view camera. When I put the car in reverse the rear view camera displays on the bottom of the screen and the 360 view at the top of the screen as it should. But if I then put the car in drive (like when parallel parking) the display changes to show just the 360 view. Then when I put the car back in reverse only the 360 degree view is shown the reverse camera view is not displayed as required. The only way to get the reverse camera view to display is to tap the screen and click on the Rear view options to get the rear view to display. This is clearly a safety issue and not following federal regulations.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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