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profile to your car and then go mad adding apps for music streaming, online news and more.
It also features Google Assistant which provides much more sophisticated voice control than voice recognition usually does.
And during our test drive it certainly did.
That said, we barely touched the surface of what the system can do. Might be something that an owner could task a teenage offspring to explore.
HIDDEN inside the Polestar 2’s steel chassis is a 78kWh battery pack that powers two electric motors that each drive an axle.
Four-wheel drive is standard, then.The total power available is 402bhp which has to shift a car that weighs a hefty 2,048kg. Still, it’s a quick car with 0-62mph taking only 4.7 seconds.That puts the car firmly into the performance car category but, as per usual with an EV, regularly using the performance available will savage the car’s range.Which for the Polestar 2 is a maximum of 292 miles. Drive the car briskly without undue attention to energy saving and you’ll see nearer 200 miles from a full charge.
About the same as the Jaguar i-Pace in other words, which will be fine for most customers.
The Polestar 2’s list price is £49,900, from which you can deduct £3,000 for the PICG (Plug-in Car Grant).
Our car’s optional leather bumps the price up by £4,000 but our car doesn’t have the optional “Performance Pack”.
This five-grand option gives you gold seat belts, gold Brembo brake callipers, 20in forged alloy wheels, lowered springs and adjustable
Polestar 2 Now £46,900 including PICG (Plug-in Car Grant) Two electric motors, 402bhp
0 to 62mph in 4.7 seconds, 127mph top speed 292 miles 0g/km Telsa Model 3, Jaguar i-Pace, Audi e-Tron
Ohlin dampers.The brakes and the belts look sexy but for me that doesn’t make the pack worth having. I mean, how many owners are going to scrabble around underneath their cars adjusting dampers?
In a car like this all you want is comfort and safe and secure handling.
That you get from this standard spec car.You can, if you’re not concerned about range, hustle the Polestar 2 along very briskly indeed and enjoy seamless and potent acceleration.
While there are no driving modes on offer, you do get to select how much regenerative braking effect you get with settings that go from little to a level at which you hardly need to use the brakes at all.
You can also choose whether the car creeps forward with your foot off the brakes or comes to a complete standstill. Oh, and you can adjust how heavy you want the steering.
The Polestar 2 is not cavernous inside but there’s adequate room for four adults.
The charging cables go in a small 35-litre boot under the bonnet which leaves 405 litres of luggage space in the rear with the rear seats upright and 1,095 litres if they’re folded flat.
Clearly the Polestar 2’s primary rival is the Tesla Model 3.
I’m a big fan of the Model 3 but I prefer the Polestar’s styling both inside and out.
As usual, any comparison between any model of Tesla and a rival has to include the caveat that if you buy a Tesla you have access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.
The Polestar 2 has a 150kW DC charging capability which means a zero to 80 per cent charge time of around 40 minutes.
Excellent if you can find a rapid charger that’s available and working. Polestar is a new brand and an unfamiliar one. Not for long I suspect, because the Polestar 2 is the most desirable EV that we’ve tested so far.
The competition in the EV world is hotting up, great news for the customer and enthusiast.