27 December 2024 by Bart Busschots

My Polestar 2

• Polestar’s brochure page for the Polestar 2 — www.polestar.com/…
• The spec sheet for the Polestar 2 — www.polestar.com/…

Introduction

For context, I came to the Polestar 2 from a base configuration 2022 model year Tesla Model 3 without any extra bells or whistles. Right until I traded it in for the Polestar I was pretty happy with the operation of the car itself. Had I not had other concerns, I would probably have just upgraded to the 2024 long range model 3, and perhaps even splashed out for advanced autopilot (but definitely not with FSD — I buy features after they are built, not while they’re still being beta tested 🙂). But I most certainly had other concerns, and they just kept growing!

My first hits of concern about Tesla started quite soon after I bought the Model 3, and initially they were just little niggles, but over time I got more and more uncomfortable, to the point where I completely fell out of love with the car. It remained functionally great, but I stopped enjoying it in any way 🙁

1. I first started to notice how often NHITSA and Tesla were at odds, and it was Tesla’s attitude to the safety regulators in general that never sat right with me
2. Next Tesla disabled sensors in my car to shift to purely camera-based AI despite a strong consensus in the engineering world that it’s not sufficient, and that it’s just not as good in adverse conditions.
3. The more earnings calls I listened to on Bodie’s show, the most cult-like Tesla started to seem, and the more uncomfortable I got with the company’s corporate structure. Boards are supposed to keep CEOs honest, to give them the hard advice their underlings are too afraid to give, but Tesla’s board just is full of Elon’s friends and family, so he seems to have more control over them than they do over him!
4. I realised just how much modern EVs like Teslas depend on the servers and updates coming from the parent company — if poor corporate governance were to tank the company, then I’d be left with a very expensive brick!
5. And only then did Elon’s partisan political activity finally reach the point where I was being forced to defend my funding of his antics, and found I just couldn’t do it. Owning a Tesla felt icky!

I decided I wanted a replacement that was technologically on-par with the Model 3, but from a company I had faith in. So, I started the long search that eventually lead me to the 2025 model year Polestar 2 rear-wheel drive long range I took ownership of a few months ago.

My prioritised wish-list for the search was:

1. No meaningful loss of functionality
2. A design I can live with, both in terms of the form factor and the software interfaces
3. The option of a tow bar
4. A price point between €50k and €70k, ideally around €55k
5. Longer range, ideally over 600km WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure)
6. Clean software interfaces, ideally with Apple CarPlay support
7. A nice physical design I love rather than just like
8. A nice shade of blue 🙂

I didn’t get absolutely everything I wanted, but I came darn close!

1. With the exception of some minor difference around the edges, some in the Polestar’s favour, some in Tesla’s, the functionality is the same
2. The design is not just something I can live with, I love it!
3. There is an officially supported tow bar option (booked in for installation in February)
4. Price €55K
5. A range of 620km WLTP
6. A superb UI with Apple CarPlay
7. The car is simply gorgeous inside and out 😀
8. No nice shade of blue 😕 — a mildly blue-ish grey named storm is what I ended up choosing

Physical Design (with Plus Pack)

• I always liked the front and side of the Model 3, but never the back. I love the Polestar 2 from every angle — it looks sporty, tasteful, and assertive (not shouty like a BMW, but definitely not in any way cuddly like the very rounded front of the Model 3)
• The panoramic roof is amazing and there’s even a Polestar logo projected onto it from below for people outside to admire
• The front and rear LED light bars are gorgeous — they look distinctive, and the front ones have some nice smarts
  • The beam follows your steering, so you always get light where you’re going, not just where the nose happens to be pointing
  • The beam is adaptive, with specific elements dimming to avoid blinding on-coming traffic
• All four door handles have down-lights to help you avoid puddles
• The trunk (boot to me) has a kick sensor to allow hands-free opening and closing when there’s a key of some kind nearby
• The trunk and frunk space is on-par with what I had in the Model 3, though with a clever foldable divider to make the space more useful in trunk. I also find the back seats fold down flatter so it’s noticeably easier to get a bike in there
• The interior is as minimalist as the Model 3, and with a similar Scandinavian which I really like.
  • I have the Ventilated Nappa leather in Charcoal with Light ash deco interior, and it’s beautiful and so comfortable
• Superficially I find the Polestar’s interior to be a slightly nicer nicer place to be, but the Model 3 has it beat on three fronts:
  1. The Model three feels roomier inside
  2. Like the Model 3 the Polestar has various little cubbyholes for storing things, but the Model 3’s hold more stuff
  3. There is a tunnel for wiring and stuff leading to the rear of the car, so it doesn’t have the Model 3’s fully flat rear floor
• There are wonderful little design touches all over, making the car extremely intuitive and practical to use, e.g.:
  • The tailgate has two close buttons, one to just close, and one to close and lock the car
  • The gesture to unlock the car is to pull on the door handle while you have a valid key nearby
    • The gesture to lock the car explicitly is to push on the door handle
    • There’s a big tactile easy to reach median control knob in the middle of the centre console — driver and passenger alike can twist to control the volume push it to play or pause the current media. This is in addition to a full media interface on the center console and media control buttons on the right of the steering wheel. Having something easy to reach that everyone can access purely by feel is just so nice!

Software

I’m going to focus on the non-driving parts of the interface here, I’ll talk about the dashboard below when discussing the driving interface.

• The main software interface is minimalistic and shares a Polestar aesthetic you see in all their software, be it their website, their infotainment system, or their app — squares, plenty of negative space, and light, modern sans-serif fonts all around
  • It’s utilitarian and clear first, and if you like that kind of Scandinavian feel, it’s beautiful and elegant, but it’s got none of the Tesla whimsy, there are no fart apps to be found 😉
  • The design is extremely consistent throughout, so once you grok it you’re instantly at home and can find what you need when you need with the minimum of faffing about
  • It’s basically a big Android tablet in the centre console, so you can go to the play store and get what ever apps you prefer navigation, music, etc..
  • Apps are grouped into a 2x2 grid by category
• Like with Tesla, you get a cloud account where all your preferences get saved so you can access them in other Polestar vehicles
• Like with Tesla, the car supports multiple driver profiles, so you can easily share it with partners/kids
• Like with Tesla, there’s support for digital keys
  • There’s no Apple Watch app yet, but support for Apple Car Key has been announced for 2025, which should bring watch unlock 🤞
  • The built-in software has tight Google integration
  • And with Apple CarPlay, you get tight Apple integration too, much better than what Tesla offer
• The range estimates are actually realistic!
  • The Tesla range predictions were pure speculative fiction, always giving you wildly unrealistic and over-optimistic ‘projections’
  • The Polestar projections are shockingly accurate. I find them to be correct to just a handful of km on even a big 400km journey, and when they’re off, they err on the side of under-promising and over-delivering
  • I can’t over-emphasise how much more peace of mind this gives – watching the Tesla lose 15km of range in 10km of driving when you have a few hundred km to go puts you right on edge, but watching the estimated remaining battery at your destination slowly creep up the further you drive is wonderfully reassuring!

Like with Tesla, there’s an app which gives you remote information and control over core features.

• Tesla’s app is more feature complete, at least for now
• But the cadence for new feature releases is faster from Polestar ATM, so the gap is noticeably closing
• Again, the app perfectly matches all of Polestar’s UI, and again, I miss the playfulness of the Tesla app a little 🙂. This is especially true for the home screen widget where it just shows information, not a nice picture of the car.

The screenshot above shows the app’s main interface, so you can see it give visibility and control over the following areas:

1. The current status of the car above the grid
2. The state of the cars lock, doors, and trunk
   • Can remotely lock/unlock and control alarm
   • Can’t remotely open the trunk (less important with the kick sensor and trunk button on the big physical key fob)
3. The state of the climate controls
   • Can control remotely
   • Can set and manage timers
4. The air quality in the car
5. The charge state and settings
   • If plugged in, can pause and resume charging
   • Can mange the charge limit
   • Can see and manage the daily charge schedule
6. The car’s location

The iOS app also comes with a widget, but again, it’s utilitarian rather than whimsical, as you can see in the screenshot below (location redacted under that red bar 🙂).

Driving Controls

The dashboard is the biggest improvement in terms of driving experience by a country mile — it’s in the traditional place, and it has a traditional shape, but it’s 100% screen from edge to edge, and the software feels almost magical. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover they’d invented some kind of telepathic interface because the thing seems to always show you exactly what you need when you need it, and nothing else!

There’s always plenty of negative space to avoid any kind of clutter or information overload, the typography is always super clear, and the use of colour is judicious, so your eye is drawn to the most important things, and never distracted by the less important things.

Information is logically grouped, so you never have any doubt about where to look for what.

The information is grouped into five clusters:

1. The majority of the screen is dominated by a simplified line-drawing style map, and if you have either Apple Maps or Google Maps navigating, your route is shown in blue, along with up-coming turn information.
2. To the lower right of the map is the battery cluster, dominated by the power bar which shows current battery usage. A white divider in the center of the bar represents zero usage, when you draw power an orange line extends out from the divider to the right, and when you’re recovering charge with regen a white bar extends from the center to the left. If regen is limited part of the bar is hatched out. There’s also a small phone-like battery icon, and simple text showing your battery percentage and estimated range.
3. To the lower-left of the map is the driving information cluster showing your gear selection, current speed, cruise control set speed, and rules-of-the road information. Primarily it shows the current speed limit, but it will also show the next speed limit when a change is near, and it can show other restrictions at play like not being permitted to pass. I think it uses road sign recognition, because it works with temporary restrictions!
4. Below the map is the ADAS cluster which has three permanent icons, and they can animate and show some extra info at times.
   1. Lower left of the three is the cruise control indicator, it looks like a speedometer. This icon raises itself up and becomes more prominent for a few seconds when you engage the cruise control.
   2. Lower right is the “Pilot Assist” icon showing whether or not auto-steer is on. The icon makes it clear you need to keep your hand on the wheel, being a steering wheel with a hand! This icon also animates and makes itself bigger when you enable the steering feature, and it will grow, turn orange and raise to make room for a warning to keep your hands on the wheel when the car thinks you’re not paying attention. It will pulse red and beep if you ignore the subtler orange warning.
   3. Behind and to the right of the cruise control icon is an icon that looks like the back of a car — it lights up when cruise control is actively slowing managing following distance to a car in front. This icon also extends to show a four-stripe scale when you adjust the follow distance.
5. All along the top other icons appear to show you the status of your headlights, wipers, etc., including a nice reassuring little icon when you have automatic wipers ready and waiting.

The screenshot above shows the interface while navigating with Google Maps.

• The top row of icons show I have my running lights on, automatic wipers enabled, and that the road temperature is 11°C.
• The map shows my next turn above the simplified image, and my remaining trip time & distance, and estimated arrival time.
• The driving cluster on the lower left shows my current speed is 61kmh, that cruise control is set to 60kmh, that the current speed limit is 60kmh, that I’m currently not permitted to pass, and that there is and upcoming speed limit change to 50kmh.
• The ADAS cluster bottom center shows cruise control is enabled, that there is no car detected in front to follow, and that pilot assist is off.
• The battery cluster shows I am coasting perfectly, neither adding nor using charge, and that my battery is at 97% with an estimated range of 530km. The dashed lines show my regen is limited because the battery is still cold and very full.

The whole interface elegantly adapts to the ambient brightness so it never pulls the eye more strongly than the outside world.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) (with Pilot Pack)

For me, coming from just the basic Tesla automation features, the ADAS features have proven to be an almost universally pleasant surprise. I was expecting a down-grade, because it’s common knowledge that Tesla is just soooooo far ahead, but when it comes to the basics, it turns out that’s just not true, and other people can do the same things, but with nicer interfaces!

Initially I really missed the stalk-based interface on my older Tesla, but after one or two long drives my muscle memory has completely updated, and I now prefer having full control of all ADAS features in a single cluster of just a few buttons on the left of the wheel.

But there is one thing I continue to miss, and its absence makes no sense to me. In the Tesla I had to option for adaptive cruise control to engage at the current speed or the local speed limit, which ever was higher. There is no such feature in the Polestar, even though it knows the current speed limit too. It always defaults to the current speed.

While I’m griping, I have one more quibble, and it’s a quibble with both Tesla and Polestar — neither car automatically reduced the cruise control set speed when the speed limit changes down. Volkswagen and Ford both manage this in their latest models, why not Tesla or Polestar?

It’s possible both of my quibbles will be addressed by a future OTA update. One reason for hope is a mention on the manual of an additional cruise control mode available in just some jurisdictions that reads to me like speed limit-aware cruise control 🤞

How ADAS Works in the Polestar

Firstly, all the controls are together on the left of the wheel, so not split between the stalk and the right of the wheel like they were with Tesla.

As you can see in the photo above, there are 7 buttons total which sounds a lot, but they’re sensibly laid out, and in Ireland one of the buttons is not currently used (it’s for that additional cruise control mode we don’t have here).

The buttons are laid out as a cross and two separate larger up-down buttons closer to the centre of the wheel.

The horizontal row of the cross are for enabling different levels of assistance. The left button is for the mode I don’t have, so for me there are two important buttons, the center one which has a different texture and is the master switch. Tap it to enable ADAS, suspend it, and re-start it. The right button toggles pilot assist. The top and bottom buttons on the cross move the cruise control set speed, first to the nearest 5kmh, then by 5kmh steps. The other pair of buttons control the follow distance. Finally, the up-button has a second job other than just raising the set speed, it also acts as the ‘resume’ button when ADAS was on and was then suspended. Instead of re-starting and defaulting to the current speed as the set speed, it resume with your previous set speed. Very useful when the default is one that grates on you 🙂

This is much more complicated to explain than to use. The button layout is logical, and reflects the layout of the icons on the dashboard. The different texture on the center button really adds to the usability.

Where Polestar really shines compared to a Tesla without the extra few grand for advanced autopilot is in lane changing. In the Tesla, each and every time I wanted to change lanes I had to tap the brake to disable all ADAS, change lanes, then double-tap the stalk to resume the ADAS again. On the Polestar I simply engage the turn signal to suspend the auto-steer while keeping adaptive cruise on, change lanes, and then disable the turn signal to re-engage auto-steer. Assuming you obey the rules of the road, that’s literally what you’d do anyway, so there is zero cognitive load, it just does exactly the right thing, every time, without you having to think about anything!

Like with Tesla the car wants to be sure you keep your eyes on the road, so if you keep your hands on the wheel and apply just a teeny bit of force so you can feel it making it’s little automated adjustments it will leave you alone, but if you’re being a bit lax it’ll first gently pulse a warning message, then beep at you, and then, I presume, force-disable the ADAS, but I’ve only gotten the beep once or twice, and I didn’t ignore it, so I can’t be sure 🙂

The big effect all this has is that I have never come home from long journeys less fatigued! When you put it all together, the Polestar makes journeys less stressful and tiring, and I just never get tired of that!

Performance

Polestar sales reps never seem to tire of telling you the car has its origins in Volvo Racing, and you know something, it shows! I never felt the Tesla drove poorly, but the Polestar has noticeably better handling. This 2025 model year single motor version has a big advantage over the previous single motor version — they’ve moved the driving wheels to the rear. I did test drives in both the all-wheel-drive and front-wheel-drive versions, and while the all-wheel-drive was just stunning, the front-wheel-drive was pretty on a par with my Model 3, but with much more of a tendency to spin the front wheels for a second when setting off on gravel. This new real-wheel-drive version has about halved the handling gap to to the all-wheel-drive version, so better than the rear-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3, but not up to the amazing handling on the all-wheel-drive Polestar 2. There’s no other way to put it, the car is simply fun to drive on winding country roads 😀

On a more practical level, you’ll never need to be worried about safely pulling out of a dangerous junction, when you need to jump into a gap in traffic, you just can!

This cropped screenshot from the app shows my car’s vital statistics:

Final Thoughts

Of all the many cars I test drove on this 18 month journey no other EV has the same attention to detail, and the same Tesla-like pure-EV mindset. All the other brands are trying to make EVs for ICE drivers, but Tesla & Polestar are making pure EVs for future drivers who want the best, and don’t care about legacy ICE norms.

The bottom line is that I simply love this car 😀 And the longer I own it, the more all the little touches and all the obvious attention to even the smallest details, endears it to me. Volvos may not be known for their passion, but they are known for their quality, and the Polestar has inherited all that quality and merged it with an obvious passion for driving to make a sporty, stylish, and exciting car!