Daily Express

Scandi style in Pole position

- Edited by Colin goodwin

SCANDINAVI­AN simplicity. You step into the Polestar 2, put your foot on the brake pedal and snick the neat gear selector into D and away you go.There is no starter button. There is no mode selection and there is no fake engine noise.

You might recognise theVolvo switchgear but this will be the first time that you’ve seen the unusual Polestar badge that is in front of you on the steering wheel boss.

I’ve long been looking forward to driving the Polestar 2.

Polestar 1 was a limited edition and expensive high performanc­e car that was achingly beautiful; the Polestar 2 is the first largevolum­e electric car to come from Volvo’s new standalone brand.

It is a direct rival to Tesla’s huge-selling and extremely good Model 3.

What do you think about the Polestar 2’s styling?

It’s quite difficult to pigeonhole. It’s part saloon, part fastback but it almost has the stance of a crossover.

I think it looks superb. Praise that continues into the car’s interior.The dashboard and other surfaces are covered in unusual materials with a variety of different textures. Polestar is heavily promoting the vegan angle of the car and its sustainabi­lity but ironically our test car is fitted with optional leather upholstery.

Real leather, that was once wrapped around a cow.

You’d think if they were really serious about this they wouldn’t give the customer the option of buying leather.

Polestar is also very proud of the infotainme­nt system that’s fitted to the 2.

The iPad-like touchscree­n is mounted portrait-orientated on the centre of the dashboard like a

Tesla’s.Where the Polestar’s system differs from all the others is that it is the first car infotainme­nt system powered by Google’s Android smartphone software (it’ll be compatible with iPhones next year).

You can assign your Google

 ??  ?? MUSCULAR STANCE: The Polestar 2 is a good-looking car set to rival Tesla’s Model 3 for the mainstream electric vehicle buyer’s cash
MUSCULAR STANCE: The Polestar 2 is a good-looking car set to rival Tesla’s Model 3 for the mainstream electric vehicle buyer’s cash
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