Polestar 2 review

The Polestar 2 is a five-door hatchback electric car that’s available with a couple of battery and motor options, and is capable of up to 335 miles on a charge.

Never heard of Polestar? Well, it’s an EV-focused offshoot of Volvo, and this is its first serious attempt at giving the Tesla Model 3 something to worry about.

The good news is that the Polestar conveys a sense of zen-like calm, whereas the Tesla can be a bit US ‘yeehaw’.

That Scandinavian chic is evident outside, where the 2 has simple but bold lines, including its Volvo-style Thor-hammer LED daytime running lights at the front and its rear light bar borrowed from RoboCop. It looks taller than a typical hatchback, thanks to a black strip that runs along its sills and over its wheel arches.

Polestar’s ties with Volvo are more evident on the inside. The steering wheel and some switches are shared, but the 2 does have its own unique feel and – importantly – the quality you come to expect from Volvo is very much intact. Here, the Polestar has Tesla beaten – it feels built to a far higher standard.

The star of the show is that iPad-like screen that sits within the dash. It controls everything from the stereo, to the heating and the navigation; and is nicer to use than Volvo’s system, with cleaner graphics. It’s snappy in its operation, and its menu layout is easy to come to grips with.

Volvo knows a thing or two about great seats and Polestar has borrowed a wonderfully supportive set for the front row. Space is generous at both ends of the car too – adults will have no trouble getting comfy in the back as long as they aren’t extremely tall. That said, three adults of any size will struggle to side-by-side in comfort.

I’d have the single-motor version of the Polestar 2 with the larger 75kW battery. It has the best range, it’s a bit more affordable, and performance is still good enough.

The Polestar 2’s boot has decent access with its hatchback boot lid, but the bottom line is that you’ll get slightly more stuff in a Tesla Model 3. There’s also a small storage area at the front, but again, the Tesla’s one is slightly bigger.

The Tesla Model 3 is also the quicker electric car; and its battery lets it travel further than the Polestar’s 335-mile maximum range. Still, the dual-motor Polestar 2 is hardly slow – it’ll still crack the sprint to 62mph in just 4.7 seconds and feels extremely fast in and out of town. The single-motor version is a bit more languid, with 0-60mph in 7.2 seconds.

The Polestar 2 even handles pretty sharply, too, feeling quite agile for such a heavy car.

However, the ride of the dual-motor car isn’t as good as some of the most comfortable electric cars, like the Jaguar I-Pace. Models equipped with the Performance Pack get adjustable Ohlins dampers, but they’re set up to make the ride quite harsh from the off, and it never becomes soft even by adjusting them. Better to opt for a standard car without the Performance Pack, as the ride is a fair bit more comfortable over bumps and it doesn’t sacrifice too much in the corners.

The single-motor car has the softer set-up, and is the most comfortable in the range.
Charging a Polestar 2 takes as little at 40mins, but you’ll need a public 150kw charger for that. Plugged into a typical home wall box, it’ll take more like 8hrs at a cost of around £11. That’s some £20 cheaper than fuelling the average petrol car over the same distance.

So, the Polestar 2 doesn’t have quite the headline figures or driving experience of the Tesla Model 3, and it costs more to buy, but it’s still a seriously credible electric car that manages to be classier inside and out.

Head on over to our Polestar lease deals page to see how much you can save through carwow.

Check out our in-depth Polestar 2 single motor review: