Polestar offers an early, camouflaged glimpse at its electric SUV

Polestar just offered a teaser of what might be its most important EV to date. The badge has provided its first good look (the last one was draped in a curtain) of the 3, its first SUV and its first US-made vehicle. The "premium" vehicle may be lightly disguised with QR code-like camouflage, but it looks like what you'd expect — it's a taller, roomier sibling to the 2 sedan. That's not necessarily a problem, though, and Polestar is betting on a few factors that could make the machine successful.

The company isn't shy about the target audience: this will be an EV built "in America for Americans," who keep buying upscale SUVs in large numbers. The category is likely to be one of the first to fully embrace EVs, Polestar said. The 3 should also be one of the "most climate-responsible" cars to date, and will eventually include hands-free highway driving through a combination of LiDAR and NVIDIA computing hardware.

The 3 arrives in 2022 and will join a growing EV lineup that includes the long Polestar 5 sedan. How well it fares will depend on factors like pricing and competition from its sibling brand Volvo, but it's clear Polestar is ready to be known as more than a niche brand — even if its sales goals (290,000 per year by 2025) are still modest.

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