Polestar 3 vs Tesla Model S (2016-2019)

The Tesla Model S is £690 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £192 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Tesla Model S comes out roughly £610 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 257 miles for the Polestar 3 and 198 miles for the Tesla Model S - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Polestar 3 goes roughly 60 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 22 minutes in the Polestar 3 and 40 in the Tesla Model S, so the Polestar 3 loses less time at each stop. That makes the Polestar 3 the stronger long-distance car.

The two are within 4 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 436 mm of total clearance for the Tesla Model S and about 432 mm of total clearance for the Polestar 3.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Polestar 3 and 85% for the Tesla Model S. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.