More Physical Buttons, More Actual Colors
- Polestar teased a huge product offensive today, but that’s not the whole story.
- The company’s design boss said that upcoming models will have more hardware buttons and more colorful interiors.
- The automaker’s portfolio will grow with four new models in the next three years.
Polestar is done with grey interiors and buttons on screens. As part of the brand’s ambitious plan to add four new EVs to its portfolio by the end of 2028, the company wants to ditch some of the software buttons found in today’s models in favor of proper hardware buttons.
Interiors will also get a dash of color for some extra personality, said Philipp Römers, the automaker’s head of design, during an online webcast today. Moreover, the infotainment setups, which will continue to use Google’s Android Automotive operating system, will also get more personalization options.
Photo by: Polestar
Currently, the Polestar 4 and Polestar 3 configurators show grey, white, black and more black as the only options for the interior colors. That’s on par with the typical German brands, but it can be a bit boring for Polestar’s customers, who are much younger than competitors’ buyers. According to Michael Lohscheller, the Swedish automaker’s CEO, Polestar’s average buyer is about 45 years old—about 10 years younger than the competition.
There’s also the question of safety, though, as Europe’s main car safety body, Euro NCAP, has tightened its criteria for offering the top five-star crash safety rating. To get a shot at the highly coveted five-star rating in 2026, new cars sold in the European Union have to have physical buttons for basic functions.
Currently, Polestar models have most of their buttons on the central infotainment touchscreen, with additional hardware buttons on the steering wheel and a rotary dial for the volume control. The same goes for the upcoming Polestar 5, the brand’s halo model, which will go on sale this summer.
The upcoming Polestar 4 wagon, which also goes on sale this year, is expected to have the same interior layout as the regular Polestar 4, but the second-generation Polestar 2 sedan and Polestar 7 compact SUV should come with updated interior layouts that feature more screens. However, the company has not confirmed this information.
