Living with the Polestar 2
Review by Jacob Lerklint
The Polestar brand might not yet be recognized by everyone as the company’s direction into producing hybrids and electric cars started just a few years ago. Though the Polestar brand goes way back to the days when Polestar Racing was a small team in the Swedish touring car championship, engineering their racing Volvo’s. Later acquired by Volvo, Polestar started to produce performance Volvo cars directly from factory. Fast forward a couple of years until today and Polestar is now an independent company co-owned by Geely and Volvo cars. Its primary focus is producing hybrid and electric cars from its factory in Luqiao, China.
I have been test driving their all electric Polestar 2, more specifically the Long Range Dual motor version with the 78kwh battery. The Polestar 2 shares its CMA platform with the Volvo XC40 recharge. As you might notice it sits quite high and that contributes to its funky look, you still get the distinguished “Thor’s hammer” headlights borrowed from Volvo. First time seeing the Polestar 2 in the flesh I really didn’t like the looks but having spent some time with it, it really grew on me. It doesn’t really look like anything else on the market, perceive that however you would like. With one electric motor on each axle, the Polestar 2 produces 408hp and 660nm; healthy numbers. And it’s quick, 0-100kmh in 4.7 seconds with a top speed of 205kmh. If you are able to fast-charge you can expect up to 155kw but we only managed to swiftly experience 127kw from a ionity charger. From a 100% full charge we traveled 410km until it was time to bail out and recharge.
The first impression of the Polestar 2 behind the wheel is very positive, most of the interior looks and feels like great quality. The optional and (actual leather?!) seats are very Volvo like, comfortable and loads of adjustments. The layout of the dash and the 12.3 inch google android based infotainment system is miles better than in the outdated interior of the XC40 recharge. Unfortunately, there's no Apple car-play yet but the Google OS is so good you will not miss it though it will be implemented soon. To start driving, you don’t need to press a button or turn a key, just put the gear lever in drive and off you go. With the performance of the dual motor version you have more than plenty of punch to overtake pretty much any fossil car from the get go. You will notice that the car is stiffly sprung, but never uncomfortable. You can specify it with the performance package that includes manually adjustable dampers from öhlins. I would not recommend that. The cabin at highway speed is relatively quiet, just a bit of tire noise. You have three different steering modes, light, firm and standard. You also have three different modes for one pedal driving.
Driving spiritually, you’ll notice that the Polestar 2 is actually quite fun to drive, it’s a heavy beast weighing over 2200kg but despite that it manages corners with a respectable amount of speed. You feel the road much better than in the Ford Mustang Mach E. You can have either 19 or 20 inch wheels. Esthetically you’ll want the 20 inch ones, but go for the 19 inch for the slightly better ride comfort. Moving to the backseat, there is plenty of legroom and you’ll have a superb view out of the optional panoramic glass roof. Headroom is not the best in class but if you’re really tall you will definitely struggle.
In the trunk of the Polestar 2 there is a reasonable amount of space, 405L and 1095 liters with rear seats folded. You get about 50L more space in the XC40 and a bit more with the seats folded. There is a 35L frunk in the Polestar where you can store charging cables and whatever. The Polestar 2 is a relatively new car, and that doesn’t come without some flaws and glitches. The screen went black for a couple of minutes but started itself up and then the instrument cluster map disappeared and never came back!
You have plenty of options while specifying your Polestar 2, it starts with front wheel drive, standard range Single motor version 64kwh. You can then expect a range of 415-444km (WLTP) and 224hp. Starting price excluding the government incentives is 489 000 SEK. For the Long range single motor 78kwh (+50 000kr) the range is 510-542km (WLTP) and 231hp. The dual motor car we tested starts at 589 000kr SEK but fully optioned you’re looking at circa 700 000 SEK. Remember that the heat pump is an optional extra.
If you don’t want a Tesla model 3 you should definitely give the Polestar 2 a try. It doesn’t have the range and charging infrastructure that the Tesla have but it feels way more of a quality product and a well-engineered car.
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