Polestone 01 Arrives As Yet Another China-Made Land Rover Contender

It seems like there’s nothing to slow down the Chinese marques from coming out with their own iterations of famous European car models. For this round, it’s Land Rover Defender’s time to be pitted against a China-made 'rival', where a new rugged SUV by the name of Polestone 01 just made its debut in the Great Wall nation’s burgeoning SUV market.

Not to be confused with the Volvo and Geely-affiliated EV marque, Polestone Automobiles is a newly-launched car brand under the larger BAIC umbrella, with the 01 SUV being its first-ever model. However, don’t let its newbie-ness fool you, as the Polestone 01 is actually being designed by renowned Italian design house Pininfarina.

New Polestone 01 SUV comes in either a smaller six-seater or a bigger seven-seater guises

The Polestone 01 comes in two distinct variants – the shorter six-seat version and the longer seven-seat version – with the former measuring 5,050 MM long and the latter stands at 5,295 MM in length. This makes the Polestone 01 almost the same size as its European muse, the new Land Rover Defender 130.

Penned by Pinninfarina, this rugged SUV has some Italian heritage flowing inside its veins!

Featuring the traditional boxy SUV silhouette, Pininfarina design team has bestowed the Polestone 01 with several modern touches inspired from the Defender. Highlights include the Kia EV9-esque Y-shaped LED headlights, massive squared front grille with mesh inserts, sleek underbody cladding, while the side part gets functional side steps and roof rails, as well as stylish dual five-spoke wheels shod in rugged all-terrain (A/T) tyres.

At the back, the Polestone 01 gets tailgate-mounted spare wheel carrier, as well as chiselled rear bumper design, as well as Y-shaped LED taillights that match with the front ones.

In spite of being an off-road-biassed SUV, the Polestone 01 features a pretty sleek and well-equipped cabin. Up front lies a sizable central infotainment display that crowns above its minimalistic front dash, while the floating central console houses the gear lever, wireless charging pad, as well as several storage and cubbies.

The rear passengers, on the other hand, will get its own dedicated infotainment screen mounted on the car’s headliner, while the second row ones get captain-style seats with ventilated function and leg rest extension. Both the second and third-row seats can be flat-folded to allow more room to store your belongings, or to convert your cabin into a sizable bed area.

The presence of a built-in kitchen adds some off-grid readiness to the Polestone 01

Befitting with its off-road-focused theme, the Polestone 01 also comes with a built-in kitchen area on the tailgate, featuring key kitchen appliances like a water dispenser, an induction cooker as well as plenty of space and surfaces to do your prepwork and store your kitchen utensils.

Powering the Polestone 01 is a hybrid powertrain setup consisting of a 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbocharged mill that is mated to a pair of electric motors to deliver a total system output of 469 HP and 740 NM. Thanks to this peppy-yet-efficient powertrain setup, this bulky SUV is capable of propelling from nought to 100 KM/H in just 5.5 seconds, while its sizable 56-kWh battery pack grants it with a maximum EV range of 235 KM (WLTP).

As for now, Polestone has yet to unveil neither the price nor the market availability for its first SUV model. However, we’d reckon that the Polestone 01 should make a great ‘budget-friendly’ alternative for those who are seeking an off-road-focused SUV with complete modern and luxury amenities.