2024 Polestar 2 review: Polar shift
Big improvements to the Polestar 2 should excite any car enthusiast, but one investor says the company should be more like its own product
BUYING a handful (okay, maybe less) of shares in Polestar is either one of the dumbest things I’ve done in a while, or is going to look like a genius move some day.
So far, the bozo narrative is leading. I am so deep underwater on PSNY that I can almost see the wreckage of the Titanic (along with the detritus of all the other companies in my portfolio whose share prices imploded last year).
But if any fledgling car company that sprang up in the ongoing transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is worth watching, it’s Polestar, which has just rolled out an upgraded version of its lone product here.
The facelifted Polestar 2 doesn’t look massively different, but it’s been revamped where it really counts: it’s more powerful yet more efficient, packs a bigger battery and recharges more quickly.
It’s even cleaner to build; the factory says that switching to renewable energy and tweaking the car’s materials mix has cut the carbon emissions from assembling a Polestar 2 by 12 per cent.
Premium pricing
Later this year, you’ll be able to buy a single motor version with a smaller battery, but for now the only one available is the Long range Dual motor variant, with the Performance Pack. It costs a third of a million, which puts the car in premium pricing territory.
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The facelift’s most obvious feature is a smooth new front panel that replaces a chocolate bar grille design. It houses a camera and a radar sensor, but Polestar has a habit of labelling its technology, so there’s a little sticker that says “Mid-range radar”. It’s like the “Intel inside” decal on your laptop, only cooler.
The Performance Pack also comes with striking new 20-inch wheels (though they hide the car’s mighty Brembo brake calipers somewhat), but what’s behind those wheels is what matters.
New EV hardware (including a brawny new rear motor and new battery chemistry) gives the Polestar 2 a big jump in power and range. It now has 476 horsepower (up from 408), and can now hit a claimed 568 km before running out of juice, a whopping 190 km further than before.
The new battery’s bigger capacity is only slightly responsible for the longer range. The car simply uses less energy than before, partly because when you’re just trundling along, it deactivates its front motor altogether.
But forget that. The car is at its most exciting when both motors are biffing the wheels with torque. Right from the get-go, the acceleration hits hard, but this time it keeps going, sustaining its fearsome lunge to the horizon noticeably longer than before.
Better balanced
The Performance Pack’s manually adjustable Ohlins shock absorbers still give it an uncomfortable, brittle ride, but the upshot is that the car does feel glued to the tarmac around corners. It feels a bit better balanced than I can remember, too, perhaps because the new motor setup makes the power delivery more rear-biased.
Whatever it is, it felt nice to spend a weekend with a quietly understated car that gave me the feeling it could out-gun just about everything else I saw around me, not that it’s ever cool to take part in traffic light duels.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that you can now use Apple CarPlay with the infotainment system and pre-cool the cabin with a companion app on your phone. Things like that seem small, but they matter in a car this pricey.
That said, the Polestar 2 still has its obvious limitations on a practical level. The boot really isn’t very big, and neither is the car itself. It’s roughly the size of a Mazda 3, with similarly tight rear seating.
While the interior looks lovely and clean (I counted just five buttons on the centre console, along with one knob and a gear lever), there’s hardly any storage space, so keeping it tidy would be a challenge.
Yet, the zen-like cabin, with its muted colours, soft surfaces and gentle lighting, is a uniquely relaxing place to be in. Both the car reviewer and investor in me are looking forward to the single motor version, too.
It ought to feel much more engaging behind the wheel than before, thanks to a move from front wheel-drive to rear, a switcheroo practically unheard of in car engineering. That’s what we Wall Street types like to call a material change.
Who knows if the stock price will ever take off, but Polestar could do worse than emulate its own product. I used the car’s timing app to clock its 0 to 100 kmh time at four seconds flat, even quicker than official claim of 4.2 seconds. That kind of under-promise-and-over-deliver performance is just the kind of thing investors love to see.
Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor with Performance Pack Electric motors 476 hp, 740 Nm combined Battery/Capacity Lithium-ion (nickel-manganese-cobalt), 81 kWh net Charging time 8 hours at 11 kW (AC), 30 minutes 10 to 80 per cent at 205 kW (DC), estimated Range 568 km 0-100 kmh 4.2 seconds Top speed 205 kmh Efficiency 18.4 kWh/100 km Agent Wearnes Automotive Price S$331,000 with COE Available Now
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