- What is it?
- HOW MUCH IS IT?
- SO IT’S POLESTAR VS TESLA?
- IS IT A LOOKER?
- Our choice from the range
- What's the verdict?
- What is it like to drive?
- What else do you like about it then?
- Can it go round corners?
- Anything you’re not so keen on?
- How’s the refinement?
- What is it like on the inside?
- What should I be paying?
Overview
What is it?
A new electric car, from a new electric car company. Polestar was once Volvo’s racing skunkworks, but it’s morphed into a standalone electric offshoot, jointly owned by Volvo and its Chinese mothership, Geely. Its cars are built in China, to be sold worldwide.
And while Polestar’s first homebrew effort was a plug-in hybrid – the beautiful, £140,000 Polestar 1 – this is where it gets serious. The 1 was a limited-edition headline-grabber. This is the Polestar 2, and it’s a fully-fledged production car designed to do the hard yards in establishing Polestar as a big player in the EV scene. It’s gunning for the biggest bullseye of them all right now: the Tesla Model 3.
HOW MUCH IS IT?
Prices start at £39,900 for the entry-level ‘Standard Range Single Motor’ version, which has a 64kWh battery capable of 273 miles of range and an electric motor that’s good for 221bhp. Next up is the ‘Long Range Single Motor’, which upgrades the battery to a 78kWh unit that’ll do 335 miles on a full charge and ups power slightly to 228bhp. It costs £42,900.
Then there’s the top-spec ‘Long Range Dual Motor’ edition, which features electric motors on the front and rear axle. The car develops just over 400bhp split 50/50 front-rear, so it’s fast, despite weighing 2.1 tonnes. The asking price for this is £45,900. More recently, Polestar announced an over-the-air update – first previewed at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed – that bumps power up to a nice, healthy 470bhp.
Previewed as a Volvo concept several years ago, the Polestar 2 uses its height not just to offer a more commanding view of the road than a conventional saloon, but also to carve out space for the water-cooled battery pack, which lies beneath the cabin. It’ll juice the top-of-the-range 2 for almost 300 miles, with or without the optional £5,000 Performance Pack box ticked.
SO IT’S POLESTAR VS TESLA?
Now, an equivalent Tesla Model 3 Long Range is good for another 60 miles of claimed endurance, and for some folks, the argument will end there. But we’ll not get utterly bogged down in Tesla tit-for tat here.
Polestar is finding its feet in the market and wants to do things its own way. CEO Thomas Ingenlath (an ex-Volvo design boss himself) hints Polestar’s USPs will be build quality and the completeness of the car and ownership experience, not YouTube-friendly 0-60mph times.
He admits the learning curve will be steep, but points out Polestar has been in the EV market for a year or two, not decades. He believes that now the world is warming up to electric cars, soon the idea of each car needing to carry around all the weight and cost of a 300+ mile range will seem as absurd as a car carrying around a second engine as a redundancy measure. Y’know, just in case. Polestar wants to make desirable and rapid electric cars, but it wants to do so with Scandi common sense. And Swedish fashion sense.
IS IT A LOOKER?
On the design front, it’s job done: this is a sensational-looking machine in the metal, crisp and fresh and clean-cut, loaded with presence but wonderfully unadorned with fake vents or dummy-aero nonsense. It looks like the car the future promised, but distanced enough from a Volvo S60 not to seem contrived. When you see one of these whoosh past, you’re going to want one.
Our choice from the range
What's the verdict?
“One of the most complete electric cars money can buy. Superb build quality, and decent to drive”
We love the Polestar 2 because it’s handsome, the build quality will give Audi drivers PTSD, and there’s a real sense of common sense about the car – that it’s been designed to work seamlessly, not to wow you with gimmicks then wind you up further down the line. Single Motor iterations make it more accessible for most too.
There’s also a real sense of momentum about Polestar now – it’s got the design schtick nailed, this interior concept looks to be futureproof, and yet there’s a humility about this newcomer that’s massively refreshing. Of course, it’s not without niggles – the ride should be less jiggly, and coaxing Apple fans into a cabin enshrined with Google Android could be a challenge.
Fundamentally though, the car itself is well-finished, practical and drives pleasingly, but it’s that sense of a brand really believing in its approach and starting to show its potential that’s exciting about Polestar in general, and the 2 in particular. And yep, Tesla ought to be paying attention. As should anyone else who fancies a slice of the electric future.
Driving
What is it like to drive?
We don’t need to labour the point that the original Long Range Dual Motor is a quick car. Despite the weight, having 487lb ft instantly supplied to all four wheels pelts the Polestar 2 along with ease, seeing off 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and curiously maxing at 127mph, not Volvo’s 112mph limit.
That said, this isn’t quite the kick in the head that the Teslarati thrive on – the roll-on performance is ever so slightly less violent, which makes the 2 easy to drive smoothly, both in town and when you spot an overtaking gap. Single Motor versions get 243lb ft of torque and will do the 0-62mph sprint in 7.0 seconds flat, which seems plenty quick enough for real world driving.
What else do you like about it then?
The 2’s simplicity is a joy. There aren’t any powertrain modes. You can put the traction control in a halfway-house ‘Sport’ mode, and toggle steering weight, but that’s about it. There isn’t even a starter button. Just climb in (the keyless entry is flawless, though the key is a naff lump of lightweight plastic), prod the brake, and the car’s awake and ready to set off immediately. At journey’s end, select Park and exit the car, as it puts itself to sleep. After that, having to turn keys and press buttons to rouse a vehicle seems utterly Victorian.
The tantalisingly named Performance Pack is a £5,000 option for the Long Range Dual Motor only, bringing adjustable Ohlins dampers, Brembo brakes, and gold garnish. Not actual carats, just a golden finish to the calipers and seatbelts, which sounds as tasteful as a downtown Dubai skyscraper but, trust us, actually works nicely. The 20-inch forged wheels are especially handsome.
The brakes are adequate, given they’ve got such a pudding to rein in, but the pedal feel isn’t the best – it’s a bit dead underfoot. Happily, the regen effect is so well-judged in its ‘Normal’ setting that the 2 becomes a one-pedal car. You can turn down the regen effect, or delete it completely, via a vivid touchscreen menu.
Can it go round corners?
The 2 has easy-going, accurate but synthetic-feeling steering (again, three settings for that, but the middle Goldilocks mode is just right), and deals with corners in a typically ‘modern EV’ sort of way. There’s a big reserve of grip in either four-wheel or front-wheel drive iterations, and though you sense there’s a lot of weight being asked to change direction, because that mass is carried low and the suspension is taut, you don’t get seasick from body roll, because there’s barely any.
It handles like a properly developed car, not a straight-line dragster that’s wayward in its responses. Better than a Model S? Certainly. Better than a Model 3? Different, as the car sits a little higher, but it’s bloody close.
It’s not a Sunday morning B-road entertainer, but it’s more engaging for longer than you might expect for a thickset electric saloon-on-stilts. Given that it’s actually based on a Volvo XC40 (the shared platform contributes to the lardy weight, but has safety boons and helps bring the selling price down), it’s a creditable effort to make a decent-handling executive express.
Anything you’re not so keen on?
The pay-off is the firm ride, which does seem a bizarre decision: manually adjustable household-name dampers are a hugely nerdy USP, but how many Polestar owners are truly going to spend their Sundays armed with allen keys, adjusting each turret to find a sweet spot?
The standard car is more supple. Actually not a huge amount in its primary movements, because the spring rates are hardly different. It’s just the general agitation and jitter that annoys. But the standard suspension, because it’s intrinsically softer in its damping, avoids most of that. And over bigger uglier lumps and dips, it allows the springs to breathe more. It’s simply more comfortable on normal roads at normal speeds, and smaller 19-inch wheels help. The standard brakes are fine too.
In all the Performance Pack doesn’t really take advantage of its posh dampers or brakes or wheels. So they’re not missed on the standard car. Just get the cheaper one and spend any saved cash on interior options.
How’s the refinement?
There’s no discernible motor whine at speed, only a little wind flutter around the door mirrors. They’re worth a mention – the mirror is ‘frameless’, because the whole mirror housing moves to adjust the view, instead of just the pane. Another simple slice of clever thinking, and one we prefer to look-at-me door cameras. It’s a good thing the mirrors are useful, given rear visibility is hemmed in by the thick pillars and cramped back window. Inheriting surround-view cameras from Volvo helps when it’s time to park.
Interior
What is it like on the inside?
Dispel any notions of this being a Volvo cabin with some new floormats. The Polestar 2 is bespoke, and rather brilliant inside.
The centrepiece, as with any self-respecting upstart electric car, is a giant touchscreen. Here it’s a portrait display measuring 11.2-inches across and mounted high enough that it’s in your eyeline without suffering from ‘lost iPad on the dash’ disorder. The graphics are crisp, the operation impressively rapid, with no stuttering or discernible loading time. It’s one of the most smartphone-like displays we’ve ever seen, because the Polestar is the first car to use Google OS.
So, it has ‘Hey Google’ voice assistant, you can sign into your Google account to personalise your settings, login to your Spotify account, and Google Maps is built in. Via the Google Play store, you’ll be able to download your own apps, so if you prefer navigating with Waze or listening to Apple Music, that’s all inbound. There’s no Apple CarPlay yet – that’s coming soon, but even for a hardened iPhone user this is the first in-car infotainment centre in years that doesn’t feel like it’d be improved with the addition of CarPlay.
And if you’re waiting for the ‘but what about touchscreens being fiddly on the move’ caveat, worry not, because Polestar has come up with a genius piece of common sense. The sculpted gear selector acts as a plinth for your forearm, steadying your hand as you delve into the screen. It makes operation on the move much easier than in… pretty much any car with a touchscreen. Even a new Volvo. So do measures like climate control that’s adjusted in one-degree increments, not 0.5 Celcius. Less tapping needed.
In front of the driver, there’s a further display which can be configured with a widescreen map, as well as your speed and range data. Although be warned – the range readout drops in 10-mile increments which can be disconcerting. Only the steering wheel switchgear and the volume / play knob seem to have come from a contemporary Volvo, and they work just as well as they do in an S90. The quality is exemplary, and truly wouldn’t embarrass a car at twice the price. The standard kit list is fairly healthy too, although if you want to spend extra there’s the £4,000 Plus Pack (which adds a panoramic sunroof, a Harman Kardon sound system, heated rear seats and a wireless phone charger among other bits) or the £3,000 Pilot Pack (which focuses on safety with things like Pixel LED lights, Volvo’s 360-degree camera and the Pilot Assist cruise control). Or you can be greedy and have both together.
Although you sit a little higher than in, say, an Audi A4, that effect is masked by the high door tops and cocooning nature of the cabin. It’s also not an austere or overly sporty cockpit. Light woods and fabrics are employed instead of business-suited carbon fibre. You can spec leather, but as standard the interior is vegan, and more welcoming for it. The Volvo-spec seats are supremely cossetting. It’s not a Frankfurt office, this. Or a Silicon Valley coffee shop. It’s a lodge retreat, in a pine forest.
In the back there’s enough room for adults to sit behind adults, though it doesn’t feel as roomy as a conventional saloon because of the smaller glass area. The boot isn’t gargantuan, but 405 litres should be fine for everyday tasks, and because it’s a proper hatchback (which Polestar wanted as a selling point beyond the Model 3’s pokey saloon tailgate), the opening is huge. It’s not invaded by charging cables either, as they’re housed in a separate cubby under the bonnet.
Buying
What should I be paying?
The UK government recently lowered the threshold to qualify for its plug-in car grant to £35,000, meaning no versions of the 2 qualify for the discount that now stands at £2,500.
The 78kWh battery gives the launch-spec Dual Motor Polestar 2 a claimed range of 292 miles. Having been twice charged to 100 per cent on a summer day, our Performance Pack test car offered 260 miles first, and 270 miles on the second charge. After around 100 miles on the road, using the AC and plenty of gratuitous acceleration surges, the car offered 120 miles of range with 51 per cent charge remaining. We also found the Standard Range Single Motor provided around 250 miles of real-world range.
As ever, charging is a minefield for any Not-A-Tesla, without a dedicated network. Find a 150kW charger and Polestar says an empty 2 will have an 80 per cent charge in 40 minutes. If you can’t… it’ll take longer. Good thing Polestar is working on adding YouTube and Netflix apps to the in-car screen…
And anyway, given you’ll be ordering your Polestar 2 online, chances are you’ll be web-savvy enough to search and pin-drop an online database of charging points – you can even ask Google to do just that while you drive along. Plus, Polestar has teamed up with Europe-wide charging outfit Plugsurfing, so owners get access to 195,000 charging points across Europe – including the UK – with one electronic key tag.
So, hopefully no waving your iPhone around for signal so you can download your eighteenth charging membership app while stuck at a rainy services at 3am. Phew.
Keyword: Polestar 2