Has Polestar Built The Right Vehicles For An Emerging Market?
Rivian, Lucid, Nio, Nikola, Fisker…and now, Polestar. As the auto industry staggers into 2022, we’ll begin to see a galaxy of exciting new EVs that could reinvigorate the industry for years and decades to come. Don’t look now, but the Polestar 2 (and upcoming Polestar 3) may be the the right choice for first-time EV buyers.
The U.S.-made 2022 Polestar 2 front-wheel-drive model delivers good driving range. it’s brilliant design, exceptional handling and classic Volvo-inspired interior design make this EV refined and perfected. The Polestar 2 and Polestar 3 could become EV icons.
As Volvo’s electrified performance arm, the Polestar 2 shares a number of components with the familiar Swedish manufacturer, but the pure-EV 2 comes to market before Volvo’s electric models.
Take a close look the the Polestar 2…
The five-door, five-seat Polestar 2 fastback is the first pure electric car from Polestar. With its advanced electric drivetrain, innovative digital features, agile handling, and spectacular design, it’s packed with all the must-have features. The Polestar 2 accelerates to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds without making a sound. Its twin electric motors provide 487 lb-ft of instant torque, which is more than you get in BMW M3. The polestar is no lightweight.
The Polestar 2 on sale now is an all-electric compact that competes with the Tesla Model 3. This high-end model is equipped with a 408 horsepower all-wheel-drivetrain, 78-kilowatt-hour battery pack and a starting price of somewhere around $40,000.
Polestar: A Legacy of Racing and Performance
The name “Polestar”originally belonged to a Swedish team called Polestar Racing that built competition Volvos and modified the company’s sedate street cars into high performance machines. Volvo bought it in 2015 with the intention of turning it into its version of BMW’s M division or Mercedes’ AMG, but pivoted and became an electric carmaker.
Technology and The Polestar 2
The system is operates via a large touchscreen display and has Google Maps, the Google Play store, and the voice-activated Google Assistant that responds to natural language. The overall operation is far better than most in-car systems. The upcoming Polestar 3 includes advanced Pilot pack technology, enhancing the Polestar 2’s safety features with Pilot Assist, 360º camera visibility and more.
Charging Both AC and DC charging work with the Polestar 2. It comes with two cables that are suitable for the most commonly-used charging options.If it’s a DC fast charging station, you can fill the battery to 80 percent in about 40 minutes, which is pretty much par for the course. On a home wall charger its 8 hours to full.
Taking on Tesla
A Tesla Model 3 with similar performance costs a few thousand less — so it’s a range tradeoff. Overall the Polestar is a worthy rival for the Tesla Model 3 — and in many cases, Polestar’s performance and technology exceeds Tesla. And since it has racing roots and the luxury of Volvo influence, the Polestar 2 hits the market as a well-crafted and thoughtfully programmed machine, not a first effort.
The Polestar 2 and the Teslas Model 3 are pretty much neck-and-neck. The distinction for buyers may be the design, handling, interior appointment and refinement off the Polestar.
