Polestar 2 review | premium feel provides fleet appeal

Polestar has taken the fleet market by storm with its first electric car, the Polestar 2. To date, 75% of them are in the hands of company car drivers.

Since its debut, the model line-up has been expanded beyond the fully-loaded high-performance launch model. The one we’re testing here is the more ‘sensible’ Long Range version. It uses a 78kWh battery pack and a single electric motor that drives the front wheels. Polestar has also reigned in the specification, to reduce the price.

This derivative, with a 78kWh battery, can be had for £46,395 and offers a WLTP range of 341 miles, so it undercuts the BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3 by a significant margin, while promising similar capability.

There’s an even cheaper Standard Range model, costing £3,000 less. It uses the same motor, but has a smaller 69kWh battery, giving 297-miles of range (WLTP).

Polestar has also introduced a new range-topping Performance variant of the dual motor car, with 476PS.

Our first impression of the Long Range car was that it felt less premium than the high-spec launch edition version we’d previously tried. With cloth upholstery and lots of black plastic, the interior was a little underwhelming. It’s still a nice place to be, however, blending a raised SUV-like driving position with the low-slung feel of a sports saloon. The infotainment and digital instruments are well thought-out and easy to understand.

There’s more road noise than we’d have liked, but the Polestar 2 rides well, even on 20-inch alloys.

Passenger space is ample, front and rear, while the boot is also spacious and accessed via a hatchback for added practicality.

Handling is composed but if you push to hard the chassis struggles without that rear-mounted motor.

During our test we covered 434 miles and the car achieved 3.1mi/kWh, which was a little disappointing. We’d expect a real-world range of around 260 miles.

To assist drivers, there’s a Range Assistant function on the infotainment system, that uses data from the sat nav and based on your current driving style to predict a more accurate range. It’s at odds with the one in the instrument cluster, however. At one point we were being told the car had 120mi of range by one display and just 70mi by the other.

Single motor variants have a power output of 231PS, giving a 0-62mph time of seven seconds. The power is adequate, but tails off quite quickly after an initial surge.

With a price difference of just over £3,000, we’d be more tempted by the Twin Motor model, with its 408PS output and modest difference in range it feels more like a car deserving of the Polestar badge.

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