The refreshed 2024 Polestar 2 is a handsome, speedy and user-friendly sedan, coming from a brand that has seen significant upgrades since its debut in 2020. It also has some improving to do – don’t we all? Let’s take a look.
The biggest difference for this year is the new dual-motor setup as well as equipping the car with rear-wheel drive, giving it an enormous punch, acceleration-wise. The single-motor trim is still available, too, as is an AWD. This new setup comes courtesy of parent company Geely/Volvo CMA platform, who share their setup with the Volvo C40 and XC40 Recharge. Pick Up 8ft
An all-new permanent magnet motor is coupled with with special silicon carbide inverters. My vehicle’s horsepower was a blistering 455 at 335 kW, with torque listed as 546 lb-ft, so this was a fast trim indeed. Mileage is listed at 106 city/highway combined, or 32 kw hours per 100 miles.
Polestar responded to complaints about range in the past by rigging this year’s model with a new 82 kWh battery pack enabling you, in theory, to get up to 320 miles on a charge – if you charge at peak rates of 205 kW. There are a variety of options you can investigate if you’d like more oomph, more mileage or both. My test-model’s sticker was $63,000, $68,500 with all options and delivery charge.
For this year, the Polestar 2 received what the company’s calling a “SmartZone” on its front, referring to its safety equipment like cameras and radar. SmartZone delivers a camera, midrange radar, accelerometers, ultrasonic sensors, and heating wires to keep it running well in bitter cold, the bane of all electric vehicles. Otherwise, its looks peg it instantly as an upscale electric with its seamless meld of body parts, same-colored in my tester.
While handsome and efficient, the interior felt a little less grand and plush than you might expect for the price, and it was a little cramped for one 6’1 passenger who rode with me at one point. It also doesn’t have a lot of cubby storage. Yet the overall effect is elegant and, storage-wise, the vehicle makes up for the less-than-huge interior with a fairly generous trunk and a frunk up front.
You’ve got a 12.3-inch instrument cluster and a center-placed, portrait-sized touchscreen, all of which work well and aren’t a whole lot different than others in this price range. Your apps appear in their badged form so they’re easy to find, but what sets the system apart is that it’s specifically designed for an electric car. That means things that are important appear such as locating nearby charge stations or even telling you how long of a wait you might have at a station.
Would it were that the system could tell you if a charging station was in working order or not – we’re not there yet, though.
Another thoughtful addition was Polestar adding a plethora of USB ports both in front and back, and Sirius XM Satellite Radio coming standard. A Harman/Kardon sound system was sweetly crispy and bass-y.
The biggest difference I found in this year’s Polestar drive was that its improvements have brought it out of Volvo territory and more into, say, the Benz neighborhood in terms of finery. The vehicle really responds in a personal way, and that makes it fun. You blast from dead stops, of course, which ups the glee factor. Over 50 MPH, you lose a little of that ferocity, when passing, for example. The vehicle also does not like bumps – we felt it in the spine over rough roads.
My test took me partly over windy mountain roads and the car was steady, sure and never punked around the turns. Stopping is near-instantanous, but it’s fun to let the engine bring you to a halt by anticipating stops and taking your foot off the accelerator.
You’ll find the usual modern safety features installed such as a blind spot detection system, rear cameras, ABS brakes and similar. For more current information, visit the NHSCA.
Pickup Truck Cab Cover The Polestar is great alternative to Tesla, and all its fans look forward to continuous improvement and refinement as time goes on.