Why Cars Without Rear Windows Are a Dumb Gimmick

Polestar is a confusing company. China’s Geely owns it, and though its cars look like electric Volvos, and Volvo remains a shareholder, the cars share nothing with Volvo’s models. Polestar actually started as that brand’s sports division — responsible for its road-racing cars and limited-edition, bright-blue, high-power models — before being spun off as Volvo’s electric line, and then into a separate company.That racing heritage is where the brand gets its name from, referring to “pole position,” not a Miami dancer.It’s a compelling company, with attractive, competent electric cars sold at reasonable premiums to Tesla. The Polestar 4 is a more premium, European take on a Model Y, with none of the associations of Elon Musk’s politics. In the U.S., it starts at $56,400 for the rear-motor version, which makes 272 horsepower and offers up to 310 miles of EPA-estimated range; the dual-motor version starts at $62,900, with 544 horsepower, a 3.7-second 0-to-60 mph time, and up to 280 miles of range.But, like the Tesla, the Polestar 4 has its annoying quirks. In the Tesla, you have to put up with poor build quality, ever-changing spec lists, and an annoying ‘yoke’ steering wheel, which almost all customers choose not to option. But none of those quirks compares to the needless stupidity of that on the Polestar 4: it lacks a rear window.Polestars have a raised-sedan look and a sloped rear window, which is good for aerodynamics and style, but, as customers complained, not for rear-occupant headroom. For a company owned by Chinese investors and trying to reach Chinese customers, that was a problem. Polestar could have just abandoned this design language and used a classic vertical hatch as found on every SUV ever made. But instead, with the Polestar 4 — named because it comes after the Polestar 3, despite being smaller and cheaper — they lifted the roofline and squished the rear slope in, meaning they could keep the same look but could no longer fit rear glass. So, they removed it.When driving this car, if you turn around, you can only see the rear occupants and the back panel of the car. To see what’s behind you, your only viewpoint is a center rearview “mirror” screen that displays an image from a camera at the rear of the car. This has some advantages over a classic rearview mirror. Passengers can’t block your view out back, for one. But, with a single camera, it’s also very difficult to judge depth, which matters a lot when you’re parking. That flaw may explain why all three Polestar 4s I have seen in London have had large dents in the rear bumper. This may be an anecdote, but I have never before seen a pattern like that on a relatively new car model. The forthcoming, doomed electric $130,000-plus Jaguar Type 01 will also not have a rear window, but you will never see one with a dented rear because you never see one anyway.And what’s particularly pointless about this is that a classic vertical SUV tail is more practical, looks better, and is just as good aerodynamically. Since the 1960s, automotive designers have known that, unless you can do an extended ‘long-tail,’ that one with a sharp, abrupt cut-off rear is the next best option. Volvo knows this, as most of their electric models — such as the VX60 and VX90 — have a normal vertical SUV tail.The rear-window deletion has appeared on concept cars for years, and though it’s now possible to put it into production due to changes in legislation, camera technology, and pricing, that hasn’t made it a good idea. It’s an unnecessary, dangerous, and silly fad that will disappear from cars within the decade.

Why Cars Without Rear Windows Are a Dumb Gimmick

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