By Ewan Kennedy, Marque Motoring
I must admit to having a soft spot for anything Swedish. I’ve had several business trips there with Volvo and Saab and on a couple of occasions have stayed on at my own expense to have a holiday after the official part of the event was over.
Sweden is in the forefront of thinking when it comes to global warming and is working hard on reducing emissions from its vehicles.
Polestar is a sub brand of Volvo and shares some components with the Volvo XC40 Recharge that we tested recently.
The Swedish Polestar 2 is a pure EV, running on batteries without any internal combustion engine to back it up.
Three variants are offered: Standard Range single motor, Long Range single motor, and Long Range dual motor (our test car). Polestar quotes expected range of 474 km, 542 km and 482 km respectively
STYLING
It’s a five-door hatchback and, in the Swedish style, is neat without being ostentatious, when we road tested the Polestar 2 in our home area on the Gold Coast those who we asked to comment on it liked the shape thought it was stylish, with a semi-sporty look.
The front has a sort of radiator grille, perhaps to suit potential buyers who aren’t keen on a car that looks different from the norm.
At each side of the grille are the famed ‘Hammer of Thor’ shaped lights as used in all Volvos.
INTERIOR
The seats are large and comfortable. However, the foot space in the front isn’t as wide as we expected, probably due to the fact that it’s based on the similar platform as the smaller Volvo XC40.
The panoramic roof is huge, there’s even an illuminated Polestar logo reflection, but you can only see it from the back seat.
The roof is tinted, but there’s no blind or electro-chromatic setting to lessen the amount of light and heat that can be come through on a sunny day. This wasn’t a problem as we tested the Polestar 2 in winter here on the Gold Coast. We will try to get another one in summer and see how it feels.
There’s a real look and feel of upmarket luxury inside, the soft-touch fabrics and other materials around the cabin are that well-mated and blend of high-quality minimalism.
INFOTAINMENT
The Polestar uses a Google-sourced Android Automotive infotainment software. It works very well around town. The Hey Google voice assistant and control some of the car’s functions as well as the infotainment and navigation features. If you log in with your Google account, you can search for things on your phone and have them available in the car seamlessly.
POWERTRAIN
Polestar 2 is offered with in three models; single motor and standard range, single motor with long-range and dual-motor with a long-range battery pack.The Polestar 2 we tested is the “big gun model” had dual electric motors and long-range batteries. Its official range is. 480 kilometres, but see the notes in the Driving section of this review.
Part two coming tomorrow.
