RAY MASSEY: Polestar 4 is a rear-view revolution with no window however excellent imaginative and prescient

Santa has a job on his hands delivering presents across the globe this Christmas Eve – as he sets out on his sleigh from the North Pole.

But perhaps it’s time he switched to something a bit more 21st century, though still with a link to the Arctic Circle – or at the very least Scandinavia. How about the new Polestar 4 from the cool Swedish electric car-maker which I’ve been driving?

Polestar is a spin-off from Sweden’s Volvo, though both are now owned by Chinese car conglomerate Geely. Priced from £59,990, the big talking point about the four-door five-seater is that it’s the world’s first car with NO rear window. Instead, the view out the back is from a rear-facing HD ‘stay-clean’ camera on the roof.

This sends unobstructed, wide-angle, high-resolution live images to the driver via a digital screen where the rear-view mirror would usually be. The screen can be flipped to become a normal reflective mirror. You get used to using it. 

However, you are looking at an image on a flat two-dimensional digital screen, whereas in a mirror your eyes are looking farther ‘into’ a virtual 3D reflection. You can’t use it like a traditional mirror to judge distance by moving your head slightly.

On the other hand, the absence of a window allows for more rear space and headroom for passengers in the rear who enjoy limousine levels of space and legroom, as well as an extended panoramic glass roof. The roof-mounted camera housing is designed to direct air and rain and keep dirt and grime away from the lenses.

Inside, you can set the interior ambience of mood and lighting. Irritatingly, there are basic functions that can only be set by fiddling around on the central screen – such as mirror settings.

I drove the Long Range Single Motor rear-wheel drive model with 200kW (268bhp), which accelerates from rest to 62mph in 6.9 seconds up to a top speed of 124mph. It has a range of up to 385 miles – so Santa will need to carefully plan his charging.

The more powerful all-wheel drive 400kW (536bhp) Long Range Dual Motor accelerates from 0-62mph in just 3.7 seconds with the same top speed but a shorter range of 367 miles and costs from £66,990 (polestar.com).