Touchscreen overload is over: Polestar listens to drivers and brings buttons back

CEO Michael Lohscheller confirms owners want fewer touch surfaces and more real controls. Polestar 3 leads the shift for 2027.

Polestar is rethinking its cabins and is ready to bring back physical buttons. CEO Michael Lohscheller admitted in an interview with Autocar that owners are saying it openly: they want fewer touch surfaces and more clearly defined controls.

For Polestar this is a notable about-turn. Ever since the Polestar 2 launched, the brand has pushed minimalism and screen-based control hard — but that approach turned out to be awkward for many drivers, especially on the move.

Lohscheller put it simply: “They say: we want more buttons. It’s that simple. And yes, we will make buttons.”

The Polestar 3 will be the first to change. For the 2027 model year, the SUV will get proper physical steering-wheel buttons in place of the current unmarked touch pads, which have been widely criticised for confusing navigation and being awkward to use on the road. Future models — the Polestar 5 GT, the Polestar 4 estate, the Polestar 7 crossover and the next Polestar 2 — are expected to follow the same approach.

The company is also responding faster to software glitches. Lohscheller singled out the digital key problems on early Polestar 3 cars and said the fixes are already baked into the 2026 model year. The total Polestar fleet now stands at around 240,000 cars, and feedback flows directly through the owner community and the brand’s retail model.

Polestar isn’t walking away from technology, but it concedes the point: beautiful screens shouldn’t get in the driver’s way. Minimalism is fine — until a simple function turns into a menu hunt at 70 mph.