Test drive: Volvo’s Polestar 2 electric car hits Aussie highways
Priced on a par with Tesla 3, the Polestar 2 is high tech and a cinch to drive, but watch out for safety add-ons that soon bump up the price.
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It’s not often that The Australian’s tech section reviews cars, but EVs are increasingly on our radar, especially ones like the Polestar 2 with its mountain of configurable software. It has an operating system made by Polestar, a separately run offshoot of Volvo, in collaboration with Google, an arrangement which is unique.
You can command the Google Assistant to control the climate, and the assistant will interrogate the battery system to see whether it can navigate you to Canberra without a recharge. If not, it will recommend a suitable charging station en route.
Driving the Polestar 2 is like being on autopilot. True, it is not a driverless car. However, apart from putting my foot on the brake and selecting a gear, there wasn’t much to do except steer the blighter through one of Sydney’s motorway tunnels and around the inner west where I test drove it.
Being electric, there isn’t even the concept of a gear change. The choices are just forward, reverse and neutral, and there is a separate park button that engages the brake. There’s no handbrake.
Because of the way manual gear positions evolved, with reverse at top, you push the lever forwards to go backwards, and backwards to go forwards. I suspect this will change in time to be intuitive.
The Polestar 2 is the second car made by the Volvo offshoot. The first, Polestar 1, was a sporty limited edition hybrid costing $240,000, but it wasn’t sold in Australia. Polestar 2 is a sporty yet stately looking sedan starting at $59,900 for a single motor, standard range (440km) variant – the same price as the Tesla Model 3 against which it competes.
A single motor, longer range (540km) model is $64,900 while a dual motor, longer range (480km) variant begins at $69,000. Optional pilot, plus and performance packs cost up to $8000. Note that blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and adaptive cruise control are part of the Pilot Pack costing $5000. They are not standard.
Not only is driving a cinch, but parking is too, thanks to the optional birds eye camera system that gets rid of the angst when backing into a parallel parking spot or taking a sharp corner. Polestar 2 is big, but not overly so, so manoeuvring is no problem.
Outside, you get LED headlights and my review car came with 20-inch alloy wheels, which offers a sporty, racy look, and is optional as the standard is 19-inches. You can carry goods front and back. The bonnet has a small 35 litre area for looser goods and a compartment beneath it houses a compressor, big bottle of sealant and emergency triangle should you break down. There is no spare tyre to be found.
The boot offers a generous 405 litres, there’s a 12 volt plug for powering a car fridge and the like, tether anchors for child restraints and a hatch that opens a hole from the back through to the sedan where you can stash skis rather than use a roof rack. You could end up with snow, ice and dirt in your car, but you can treat your skis like a pet and pat them as you drive up and down mountains.
If you are carrying packages and have your proximity key, you can open the hatch door by kicking upwards beneath the bumper and stash the goods without first putting them down.
If you’re used to driving an older car, you’ll find it eerie just opening the driver door, getting in, putting your foot on the brake, selecting a gear and driving off. There’s no key and no start button, you just get in and go. The engine is so silent you wonder if it is on. The only sound is road noise once you get going.
Adjusting the seat levels is easy; there’s a toggle level that moves the seat up, down, forward and back in one go, and you can store your seat position in memory so you can select it the next time you drive. It can recall two people’s seat settings.
While this car contains a lot of tech, the interior feels uncluttered and uncomplicated. Vegan leather upholstery is standard. The $6000 Plus pack adds the option of WeaveTech upholstery (also vegan) and a sunroof, and you can pay extra for Barley Nappa leather.
The smarts are delivered by the infotainment system and the digital dash. You have two configurable screens. You can choose what shows on the dash, for example, you can have Google Maps display on the dash in front of you.
The infotainment screen is well set out. There is a mountain of settings you can configure under tabs and headings in a visually appealing interface.
The infotainment system – the bespoke collaboration between Google and Polestar – works independently from your phone but you can link your phone to handle messages and calls. It also supports Android Auto and Apple Carplay will be added in 2022.
However, the Google Assistant on your smartphone can’t perform clever car-focused functions such as using a voice command to set the car temperature. You need to use the car’s Google Assistant for that.
The infotainment system also supports Android apps, but there are only a handful aboard at present.
Polestar has thrown open the car’s Android platform so that independent developers can build apps for Polestar 2. For example, a tourist body might build an app that offers a dialogue when the car is at certain locations. A developer could build an app that directs you to your Airbnb.
The infotainment system generally works well, but I found command implementation can stall if the cellular signal is weak. This happened once while driving in Sydney.
There is plenty of legroom in the rear seats. There are dual controls for adjusting the airflow and warming the seats, and 2 USB ports.
The Polestar 2 has plenty of oomph – single motor models go from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.4 seconds while 300kW dual motor cars do it in 4.7 second if you find somewhere to try it.
There’s optional ‘one pedal drive’ where you drive with your foot on the accelerator and not on the brake unless necessary. Ease up and the motor slows the car naturally and regenerative braking kicks in which stores charge as you slow down.
My one beef is the inclusion of what could be standard features in the add-on packs – the Pilot Pack ($5000), Plus Pack ($6000) and Performance pack ($8000). Wireless mobile phone charging, driver awareness including blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, pilot assist, and 360 degree cameras for birds-eye view cost extra.
I’m not concerned about luxury and advanced features being offered in add-on packs. Good luck to the car makers. But there should be an industry agreement that safety features capable of saving lives and major damage are standard, such as cross traffic alerts and rear collision warnings. This should apply to all car makers.
Polestar 2 can be pre-ordered now in Australia and test drives will be available in most states and territories. The car formally goes on sale in January with deliveries expected February onwards.
You get a five-year, unlimited kilometre car warranty and an eight-year 160km battery warranty with servicing provided through the Volvo network.
The Polestar 2 combines elegance and high tech, is a cinch to drive, and doesn’t over burden you with electronic clutter, but it possesses enough tech features to keep geeky drivers happily engrossed.
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Originally published as Test drive: Volvo’s Polestar 2 electric car hits Aussie highways
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