diff --git a/src/plots/polar/layout_defaults.js b/src/plots/polar/layout_defaults.js
index 462916536ac..8017b42a7f8 100644
--- a/src/plots/polar/layout_defaults.js
+++ b/src/plots/polar/layout_defaults.js
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 
 var Lib = require('../../lib');
 var Color = require('../../components/color');
+var Template = require('../../plot_api/plot_template');
+
 var handleSubplotDefaults = require('../subplot_defaults');
 var getSubplotData = require('../get_data').getSubplotData;
 
@@ -49,11 +51,7 @@ function handleDefaults(contIn, contOut, coerce, opts) {
         }
 
         var axIn = contIn[axName];
-        // Note: does not need template propagation, since coerceAxis is still
-        // based on the subplot-wide coerce function. Though it may be more
-        // efficient to make a new coerce function, then we *would* need to
-        // propagate the template.
-        var axOut = contOut[axName] = {};
+        var axOut = contOut[axName] = Template.newContainer(contOut, axName);
         axOut._id = axOut._name = axName;
         axOut._traceIndices = subplotData.map(function(t) { return t._expandedIndex; });
 
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/polar_template.png b/test/image/baselines/polar_template.png
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..98bea716231
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/image/baselines/polar_template.png differ
diff --git a/test/image/mocks/polar_template.json b/test/image/mocks/polar_template.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f2d7dc848c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/image/mocks/polar_template.json
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+{
+  "data": [
+    {
+      "r": [1, 2, 3],
+      "theta": [4, 1, 2],
+      "type": "scatterpolar"
+    }
+  ],
+  "layout": {
+    "template": {
+      "data": {
+        "scatterpolar": [
+          {
+            "thetaunit": "radians",
+            "marker": {
+              "color": "hotpink",
+              "size": 20
+            },
+            "line": {
+              "color": "cyan"
+            }
+          }
+        ]
+      },
+      "layout": {
+        "polar": {
+          "bgcolor": "black",
+          "radialaxis": {
+            "gridcolor": "white",
+            "linecolor": "white"
+          },
+          "angularaxis": {
+            "gridcolor": "white",
+            "linecolor": "white"
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}