2026 Polestar 5 Priced for Australia: Dual Motor From $171,100, Performance $193,100, Q3 Deliveries

Image credit: Polestar Australia

If you have been holding out for an electric grand tourer that is not a Porsche, the wait is nearly over. Polestar Australia has locked in pricing for the flagship Polestar 5 and confirmed Q3 2026 deliveries, with the Dual Motor opening at $171,100 before on-roads and the Performance at $193,100. The 5 is the brand's first car built on a bonded aluminium platform developed entirely in-house, and it sits well above the rest of the local Polestar line in both money and intent. This is the car Polestar wants on shortlists next to a Porsche Taycan, an Audi e-tron GT and a BMW i5.

Both Polestar 5 variants are Launch Edition cars at first, which means a fixed equipment grade for the first wave of orders. After that, Polestar will open up Plus, Pro and Performance Pack option boxes to widen the range. The Performance lands in dealerships first despite being the dearer car, mirroring what Polestar did with the 5 European launch.

Pricing

That $22,000 step from Dual Motor to Performance buys 100kW, 203Nm, a 0.7-second cut to 100km/h and the Performance Engineered chassis tune. It does not buy more range. In fact, the Performance gives back about 105km of WLTP range to the Dual Motor because of the way it is geared and shod.

Powertrain and battery

Both Australian Polestar 5 variants share the same 112kWh NMC pack supplied by SK On, with 106kWh usable. Polestar runs the whole car at 800 volts, which is what allows the 350kW DC charging peak and the 22-minute 10 to 80 per cent claim. AC charging tops out at 11kW, enough for a full overnight fill from a single-phase home wallbox.

For context, that 670km WLTP figure on the Dual Motor sits at the top of every electric sedan currently on sale in Australia under $200,000, including the long-range Tesla Model Y L (681km), the BMW i5 eDrive40 and the Mercedes EQE 350. The Performance is closer to the Taycan GTS on range while still beating it on charging speed.

Body, dimensions and practicality

The Polestar 5 is a four-door fastback that the brand calls a grand tourer rather than a sedan. The body sits low at about 1,415mm tall on a 2,999mm wheelbase, which is roughly 200mm longer between the axles than a Polestar 4. Cargo loads through a wide tailgate hatch rather than a traditional sedan bootlid, and the rear seats are individual buckets with their own armrest, which limits the practical seat count to four rather than five.

Standard kit on both Launch Edition cars includes a panoramic glass roof, power-adjustable bucket seats front and rear, matrix LED headlights, double-wishbone front suspension with adaptive dampers, four-piston Brembo brakes, a 14.5-inch portrait touchscreen and a 9.0-inch driver display. The Performance adds the Performance Engineered chassis, sports brakes, Swedish gold seat belts and a Pirelli P Zero tyre fitment.

Equipment and tech

Both Launch Edition cars roll on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Cockpit platform with Polestar in-house OS layered over Android Automotive. Google built-in is standard, which means Google Maps, Google Assistant and the Play Store work without a phone tether. A 21-speaker Bowers and Wilkins audio system, head-up display, four-zone climate control, wireless phone charging and ambient lighting are all standard. Polestar runs over-the-air updates for both the infotainment and the driver assistance stack.

The Pilot Pack is standard on every car, bundling Pilot Assist (a hands-on lane centring system that operates up to 130km/h), adaptive cruise, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, a 360-degree camera, emergency lane-keep assist and traffic sign recognition. Polestar has not confirmed when its hands-off Pilot Assist Plus highway feature will reach Australian Polestar 5 cars.

Safety

The Polestar 5 is not yet rated by ANCAP and Euro NCAP has not yet assessed it either. Polestar has not flagged a target test date for an Australian rating. Active safety hardware is comprehensive: AEB with car, pedestrian and cyclist detection, junction AEB, intersection assistance, driver attention monitoring, traffic sign recognition with intelligent speed assist, surround camera and front and rear parking sensors. Eight airbags are standard. The structure uses targeted high-strength steel reinforcements inside the bonded aluminium tub.

Buyers who need a confirmed star rating in writing for fleet or rideshare procurement should treat the Polestar 5 as an unknown for now.

How it compares

Image credit: Porsche Cars Australia

The clearest cross-shop is the Porsche Taycan. A rear-drive Taycan opens at about $180,500 before on-roads with a 105kWh battery and 678km WLTP claim, very close to the Polestar 5 Dual Motor on range but 270kW down on power. The closer like-for-like is the Taycan 4S Performance Battery Plus at roughly $217,000, which gives up about $24,000 to the Polestar 5 Performance and still trails on 0 to 100 (3.7s vs 3.2s) and DC charging peak (320kW vs 350kW).

Audi e-tron GT sits in similar territory. The S e-tron GT opens at about $187,800 with 690km WLTP and 320kW peak DC charging, so the Polestar 5 Dual Motor undercuts it by roughly $17,000 on price while matching range and beating it on charging.

On the CarSorted directory, the cars buyers in this price band cross-shop most often according to our directory analytics are the BMW iX xDrive45 at $142,900, the Audi Q6 e-tron at $97,935 and the Porsche Taycan. None of those are direct GT rivals to the Polestar 5, but they sit in the same shortlist conversation. You can pull all of them side by side using the CarSorted compare tool with range, charging and dollars-per-kilometre lined up on the same screen.

Warranty and servicing

Polestar Australia covers the 5 with the same warranty package as the rest of the range: a 5-year unlimited km vehicle warranty and an 8-year, 160,000km high-voltage battery warranty. Five years of roadside assistance and over-the-air software updates are bundled in. Servicing intervals are 24 months or 30,000km, which is half the visit count of a typical luxury combustion grand tourer.

For context, the Porsche Taycan still ships with a 3-year warranty and 12-month service intervals, so over a five-year hold the Polestar saves you two scheduled visits before you even start the maths on parts pricing.

The CarSorted angle

Image credit: Porsche Cars Australia

Here is the part most of the launch coverage will skip. Sitting the Polestar 5 Performance at $193,100 next to the Porsche Taycan Turbo on the CarSorted directory shows what the money actually buys you in the segment. The Taycan Turbo opens at about $268,200 before on-roads with 700kW peak, 800V architecture and 678km WLTP. Step up to the Taycan Turbo S and you are well past $355,000. The Polestar 5 Performance is hitting roughly the same 0 to 100km/h as a Taycan Turbo (3.2s vs 2.7s on overboost) and charging just as fast, for $75,000 less than the Turbo and about $160,000 less than the Turbo S. The badge gap is real, the performance gap is not.

Use the CarSorted compare tool to put the Polestar 5 Performance, the Porsche Taycan, the BMW iX and the Audi Q6 e-tron on the same page once Polestar adds the 5 to its configurator. Direct link: /compare. Or jump straight to the CarSorted directory and filter for BEV grand tourers. The directory also flags which cars at this end of the market sit above the fuel-efficient LCT cap and therefore cannot use the federal FBT exemption on a novated lease. Spoiler: every one of them is above it.

What this means for buyers

At $171,100, the Polestar 5 Dual Motor undercuts a comparably specced Porsche Taycan rear-drive by close to $10,000 and matches it on WLTP range while pulling ahead on DC charging peak. For someone who already drives an electric daily and wants a faster, longer-legged second car, that is the easier conversation with the household CFO than a Taycan would be. The 8-year battery warranty and the 24-month service interval also stretch the case further out over a five-year hold than Porsche 3-year warranty does.

At $193,100, the Performance is harder to justify on rational grounds. You are paying $22,000 for 0.7 seconds and a 105km range deficit on the same battery. If the only reason to buy a 5 is the GT styling and the 800V charging, the Dual Motor is the smarter spend, and the saved $22,000 buys roughly four years of premium home wallbox AC electricity at typical Australian off-peak rates.

And if the budget will not stretch to $171,100 in the first place, the Tesla Model Y L at $74,900 is the same long-range, six-figure-replacement EV thinking with a 681km claim and a much friendlier on-road cost line. That is the directory entry to put on the shortlist alongside any Polestar 5 Launch Edition order, because it answers the question of whether you actually want a 5 or whether you just want an EV with a long claimed range and fast charging.

Either way, Polestar Australia is taking deposits now via polestar.com.au, with the Performance shipping in Q3 2026 and the Dual Motor following a few weeks behind. Allocation for Launch Edition is capped at the first wave of orders.

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