REPORT 8
The first signs of late spring-early summer appear to be finally making an appearance. And, as marginally warmer weather arrives, unfortunately that means that the Polestar 2 has to go.
It has felt like a rapid six months, though it’s ironic that I’m still finding myself learning new things about the car. For starters, with warmer weather and with the driver’s window open, I’ve suddenly been aware that the Polestar emits a low beep to warn any pedestrians behind. I’d never noticed it before as the windows have always been shut during the winter.
One other benefit is that the 2’s efficiency has been steadily climbing too. I’ve mentioned the frustrations before that the trip computer is in kWh per 100 miles rather than the more conventional mls per kWh, but it does mean that even marginal efficiency improvements are noticeable– even if in reality it makes little difference to your overall mls/kWh figure.
I’ve also been driving some other EVs recently and it has underlined just how inherently good the Polestar 2, despite the original package being five years old. The lack of wireless Apple Carplay is a bit of a giveaway obviously, but the only car where the Polestar has really shown its age afterwards is when driving the superb new BMW iX3. For a car of this age, that’s mightily impressive.
It’s also proven to be pretty practical. While the reality is that the rear seats haven’t been used by passengers with much frequency, I have lowered them to transport larger items on many occasions – just another benefit of that hatchback body, even if it does look like a saloon at first glance.
In fact, looking rearward was a bit of a bugbear during my time with the car. The rear camera is great but its low mounting just above the number plate meant that it was constantly getting dirty or having drips of water distort the image shown on the screen. Plus, an admitted personal grievance with numerous modern EVs, is that there was no rear wiper. Not a problem, but there were plenty of times over the winter months when the rear windscreen was dusty and in direct sunlight was almost impossible to see out of.
Overall though, the Polestar 2 has been a superb companion, so much so that I’ve even been looking into buying a used example. Extremely comfortable for longer journeys, I think the styling still looks fresh and stands out in a car park especially amongst the latest fashion for amorphous blobs that have all the sharp edges of a ten minute-old Sherbet Lemon.
The other factor where it stand out from modern rivals is its touchscreen too. It’s clear, easy to read and, more importantly, easy to navigate. And, despite that wired-in connection mentioned earlier, not once has Apple Carplay ever failed to work on any journey – that’s certainly not something I could say of plenty of other EVs I’ve driven.
My first report on the Polestar 2 praised the index search function on the digital handbook – a genius move so clever that it was a wonder that no other car manufacturers else did it. I said at the time that whoever thought of it deserved a medal and wondered whether the Polestar would be winning any more during my time with the car. On the basis of the last six months, simply still being this good and this competitive after this long then surely, like the Oscars, one for lifetime achievement is deserving. I certainly think so.
REPORT 7
How much do you like music?
Or, perhaps the question should be how much do you like listening to music and more specifically, listening to it when you’re in the car. Not so long ago, my answer to that question would have been all the time, though now I tend to listen to podcasts a lot on longer journeys.
Every time I climb behind the wheel of my Polestar 2, I’m reminded that my test car has the optional £1800 Bowers and Wilkins stereo by the cute, cone-shaped miniature speaker on top of the dashboard. Premium audio equipment has become a major differentiator for premium cars in recent years and Bowers and Wilkins are one of the best.
I first came across Bowers and Wilkins with their association with Jaguar Land Rover back in 2007. In fact, as part of that association, we even visited one of their sound lounges in New York during the auto show, for them to demonstrate their in home hi-fi systems and also to explain some of the challenges of in-car systems.
Premium audio systems have become big business for car brands in recent years and, being a natural born cynic, I’ve always been inclined to wonder if they’re really worth the cost – the system in my Polestar 2 is £1800 after all (though you do get some of that back at resale time).
So I started having a bit of a play around with the Polestar and listening to some familiar – and challenging – tracks. In fairness, I had experienced a similar B&W system in the Volvo EX90 not so long ago, but delved into the Polestar’s menus where you can switch the sound itself between studio, surround and room with then further choices for a concert hall or a jazz club. You can also adapt the speakers just for the driver, the front seats or the whole car – and yes, it does make a difference.
My first thought would have been to set it and then leave it on one preference, but if you’re regularly switching between music and spoken word podcasts, then your needs change depending on how you want the sound delivered. My ears are nowhere near as sensitive as others, but it’s easy even for relative audio buffoons like me to hear the different type of sound between the different settings.
My trick was to play a very familiar song – in my case a Peter Gabriel track with a tricky level of bass – and where you really get blown away is where you hear elements within the song that you haven’t heard before. It really is that good.
In short £1800 is still a lot to pay for an upgraded car stereo, but your ears will definitely thank you.
REPORT 6
It’s funny how it’s easy to become obsessed by tiny things in cars. A rattle here, an annoying rough edge of a plastic moulding there.
For me in the Polestar 2, I’ve developed a rather unhealthy relationship with the efficiency readout. I’m afraid it won’t ever not bug me that it’s in kWh/100mls rather than the more traditional mls/kWh, but it also means getting your head round the fact that a lower number is better.
Rather like the European metric figures for ICE vehicles, it’s a measure of consumption not efficiency, whereas with mpg and mls/kWh, you want the figure to be as high as possible. Like queuing, apologising and unhealthy tinned meat products, it’s just another thing that we do better than our friends across the Channel.
But as the ambient temperature has improved, so I’ve seen my consumption on the dash readout dropping. Admittedly, in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not much, but I’ve started to notice every time it drops a decimal point. So first I was happy when it dropped into the 20s at 29.9kWh/100mls as stated previously and now I’m already at 29.6. Every little helps, as they say.
Also falling into the ‘I need to get a life’ category is something else I noticed after the long-awaited visit to the car wash. I tend to leave the regenerative braking set to maximum, making one pedal driving possible for the majority of the time. The result that I don’t have to rely on the friction brakes as much as a normal ICE car means a noticeable lack of brake dust.
When I look around at many other cars over the winter, their front wheels are coated black, but not those on the Polestar – another benefit of running an EV I suppose.
REPORT 5
Cardinham is a small village in Cornwall. I’ve never been there, but I think I know how it feels to be a resident. That’s because, at the time of writing, Cardinham has endured 50 consecutive days of rain. The last time they had a dry day, there was a 2025 calendar still on the wall.
In my last report on the Polestar 2, I commented about the level of road grime and needing to give it a wash on the next dry-weather day – I’m still waiting. As has been well reported, the level of rain following the cold snap has also seen many roads deteriorate and the roads in and around Marlow are no different. In some places, it seems like the entire road surface has failed – presumably from a lack of proper repairs or investment.
While the Polestar is running on standard 19-inch wheels (20s are available as an option), I’m still driving like a slalom skier down the road to avoid the potholes. Avoiding the more general road imperfections is less easy however and while the Polestar’s ride is firm, it’s not too uncomfortable, but a degree of road noise remains audible, especially from the rear.
While the rain continues, one saving grave is that the ambient temperature has risen – as has the Polestar 2’s range and my fully charged range is now back up to 330 miles. Thankfully, that was enough over half term to get me to my son and I’s regular trip to Centreparcs and back.
That was just as well as I’ve mentioned in previous reports about Centreparc’s commitments to EV charging although on our visit to Elveden in Norfolk, the ones nearest our accommodation appeared to be bagged up, which was a shame. Still, we returned home after our trip with more than 20% charge left, so I was more than happy to charge up cheaper there.
As mentioned in my last report too, it also saw me fill up the Polestar’s boot, taking advantage of its hatchback practicality (how do we take so much stuff for four days?). The only downside was tackling the M25 for both our outbound and return trips, which was so bad that Waze diverted us away from it as much as possible due to heavy traffic.
That made for slow going but, as ever with EVs, the silver lining for that cloud was that it saw my efficiency drop to 29.9kWh/100mls, the first time I’ve seen it drop below 30kWh/100mls. In the more traditional metric, that’s the equivalent of 3.34mls/kWh, inching ever closer to the claimed figure of 3.63mls/kWh. After the chilly winter we’ve had, I reckon that’s a pretty respectable average of my time with the car so far. It’ll be interesting to see if that improves further.