All-electric Polestar 2 brings Swedish class to the EV market

I feel like these days, a lot of people really are intrigued about the idea of getting out of their internal combustion engine car and into an Eevee. But they just need that little extra push that bit of intrigue, a bit of added interest about the drive train in order to do that. And with that, I give you The poll stopped to [MUSIC] The first thing about the pole star team that makes it intriguing is that it's not an SUV. It might be based off the XC 40 platform but unlike the E Tron and the Mercedes, this is a hatchback pretty spacious one that [BLANK_AUDIO] Then the overall design of it, which is simple but quite elegant and striking. I think it certainly gets an awful lot of looks. There's a sort of slab sided big volume too, which in pictures makes it seem well. Pretty huge, but actually in real life. It's nice and compact. It's actually shorter than a BMW three series. I also love this. They call it the visor graphic on the side of the car, which reminds me of well, another Swedish manufacturer, sadly no longer with us. Surely this is the modern incarnation of asabe. Post vol two is of course not made in Sweden it's made in China because Geely owns Volvo and therefore Polska, but coming back to the Scandinavian North angle of Norse mythology in here. Thor's hammer in the front lights. Pretty good, isn't it around the back. They've got 288 LEDs and rare lights and they look a bit like a kit. One other thing I just want to mention whilst we're out here, the badge it's just it's a really cool piece of designer thing. I love the fact that it's, it's matched to the body colour of each individual car. It's just in Mac wrong gloss. There's kind of a certain side [BLANK_AUDIO] The interior of this car is every bit as intriguing and striking really is the exterior. We'll come back to the big screen because I've got more sad about that. But one of the taglines of this is vegan standard. So all the materials in here are Well, vegan. This is a legal vinyl look leather on the steering wheel. These materials here, it's nice, it's quite tactile actually, it'll be interesting to see how they all sort of wear and mark up but it feels premium. There is a key, but it's a fairly unattractive thing but that's because in future, your phone will actually act as the key so this will be fairly redundant. Then there's no starter button, because this is been activated, which, if you were a child, you'd laugh at that. But I've activated. What that means is that you just get in, put on the brake, select drive and off you can go. [MUSIC] First things first, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the route that we're going to drive today because just over there is grendon, which is a substation on the national grid. In fact, it's on the line of the first ever 400 kilovolt lectricity lines installed in the UK in 1965. Now we need to end up at Millbrook. And this line goes from there all the way down just past the end of the Millbrook proving ground cycle would follow it across country. In case you again, whether it's because the cars elect Should you see electricity lines following the electricity down the hall? It's obvious. [MUSIC] Now the first thing you notice in here is, well, the windmill is actually the brilliant the frameless is such a simple thing. No cameras with screens here or anything like that. But they allow them apparently to be 30% smaller, so therefore more aerodynamic and they just look so clean and such a lovely image. Then there's the actual sort of glass house It feels quite air in here, which is odd because it's quite a shallow sort of opening there that diello the daylight opening. But because you've got the panoramic roof which is standard, there's a nice sort of atmosphere quite thin a pillars and you still got that wraparound feeling. So the view our outlines [MUSIC] One of the things that I feel may draw people to the post R2 is Google. You see, this is the first car to be designed with a Google operating system built in. What this means is that the voice recognition system actually works. You can summon an address and navigate to via Google Maps. Or you can ask Google to turn the heated seats on, or find Test match special on the radio or play track nine of the Oasis album. What's the story? Morning Glory? It is of course, she's electric. If you have a home suitably connected to a Gmail account, then you can ask it to turn the lights on or open the garage door in advance of your arrival back at the castle. Yes Big brother is watching, but it works brilliantly. And frankly, I feel a lot of other manufacturers will be scrambling to catch up. Pylons. Here's an interesting thing. Actually, they're called transmission towers. But we'll know them as pylons because when the National Grid was being set up in the 1920s The country's obsessed with Egypt, Egyptology. Hey Google. What's a pylon in Egyptology? The pylon was the large gate at the front of the temple. The walls of the pylon were decorated with carved and painted scenes of the pharaoh gods and goddesses. So now you know. [MUSIC] In terms of performance, this still has that electric car kick. You might not be the most powerful, but notice 62 in 4.7 seconds Which is pretty good given this weighs 2.1 tons. It still has an absolute sort of slightly unsettling surge from electric motors. We've got one electric motor in the front one in the back both 150 kilowatts, so 300 kilowatts overall which is 402 brake horsepower, 487 pounds for the torque And, yeah, performance in a straight line is ample. From a driving perspective though, what really interests me is the single pedal operation. So here, then we have different levels. It's on standard at the moment, which is the strongest amount of regenerative braking that you can have And from the performance aspects, actually, I think your throttle control would improve from driving one of these because you have to be really sensitive in the way that you apply it and then lift off apply it obviously because you've got that instant torque and then lifting off. If you're not careful, then the region will get very super jerky. Right? Tends to be just subtle about it but you can do entire journeys without ever touching the brake pedal it is extraordinary. It's quite odd to get used to but I really like it. And obviously, you get more range if you use stronger region of range w LTP figure for the pole star is 292 miles which is decent without being exceptional. And of course this is with the 78 kilowatt hour battery brimmed when the recommendation is only to filter 80% in order to preserve the life of the battery. However, range anxiety can be alleviated by Google Maps telling you very accurately just how much battery will have when you arrive at your destination. Or it can reach you via talking point, save you running out. I actually quite like the idea of just taking a bit more time sitting and having a coffee while you charge up. Hey Google. What's the best independent coffee shop near here? The out of office Coffee House on marketplace is one mile away. [INAUDIBLE]. [NOISE] But although there is a big focus on the range of specific cars, to me, the biggest problem with the V's at the moment seems to be the charging network. Without any unification of the different charging points at all feels quite confusing to someone newly inducted into the Evie sphere. You know there is a charging point down the road from the coffee shop, but then you find that it's one that you're not subscribed to imagine only being allowed to fill up with petrol at Shell gouges All right, I know it's not quite that bad and for some there is the convenience of charging at home. But from what I can see there is still plenty of work to do in this area. Let's talk about the big screen. Because I'm not a fan of screens in cars. I like a physical button. Now there are some physical buttons here. So you've got the crucial things dismissed. Red screen volume, play and pause and then hazard warning lights. They are all still physical buttons down here. The rest is all done by this big screen, and it actually works. I know I'm staggered by it, but it's Perfect. It's set up in portrait orientation, which again might seem a little odd. That's obviously like other cars we have seen, but it works. And the reason for doing that is because it's what it shows more on a map because obviously if you're going up the screen then that works better. And you can see further ahead with the map. And also because in terms of scrolling, you have longer lists so you don't actually have to throw as much function had to touch the screen as much when you know that it makes sense. Plus people are used to looking at their phones. So everything's kind of where you'd expect in terms of sort of battery of your phone, when you've got 4g connection and all that sort of thing. The other things are laid out nicely so you've got the the principle menus nicely in your eye line just that you're not having to pare down here And buttons are big enough. Which is perhaps the most crucial thing of all. Because you don't want to be trying to fiddle around, reaching for things. Quite where is it? This menu down here. It works. It's nice to [UNKNOWN] Simple, nice and easy to navigate. I actually like it. The drive mode in here. We've got different options in terms of steering fill light, standard form feels best I think. And then just regions I've said before, so off low or standard. Increase as well. But I think if you've got the region on then you want to create the Of because that way you can come to a full stop with the region without touching the brake. [MUSIC] Now as I said most of this car is well as standard you get all of it thrown in for your 46,000 pounds but there is one crucial option on this and that is the Performance Pack. [MUSIC] Priced at 5000 pounds isn't cheap, but you do get golden seat belts or actually yellow. You also get gold colored dust caps, so be careful where you park. Anyway, more permanently to performance. You get larger 20 inch wheels, bigger Brembo front brakes and perhaps most intriguingly, Olins jus flow valve manually adjustable dampers. The reason for the golden seat belts is because they talk about a golden ride. That's what they were aiming for in this sort of ride you get anything? Yes, that is just spot on. Have they achieved that? Well, I'm not sure in this Performance Pack car. They have entirely so there are 22 clicks of adjustment. All right. We're on 12 at the moment 22 being the softest so we're kind of somewhere in the middle. And it is pretty firm. It just gets a bit bubbly. The big primary right impacts are still really well absorbed. And you can tell they're sophisticated dampers there is a fashion so the way that they. Soak up the bigger bumps. But yes, he also wanted to set itself apart from Volvo by not having quite the sort of just a smooth ride that they have. But even so I think most customers are going to want to slacken these off. Why not go for an electrically adjustable damper because they said most people like the idea of. Just having their own setting and once they found it, they can just leave it there. I like a passive damper. I understand that and it's quite intriguing again, it's another thing the screen will interest some people set of manually adjustable aliens dampers will certainly appeal to other people like me Did actually try adjusting the dampers, and it's certainly not the work of a moment. The front's are easy enough as the knob is on the bottom stop sniggering but the rears are rather tucked away up behind the arch liners. I tried to comfort setting 18 on the front and 20 on the rear for a few miles, and it was more forgiving, but certainly still no magic carpet ride. So what's it actually like to drive with?. Its fancy ohlins dampers is its interactive, wriggling with feel through the steering and now it's not, it's not those things. It's a nice sort of clean car to drive you can say, feels sophistication, the dampers and the way it leans into them. And that's really Appealing I like that. It does feel like a heavy car when you're driving it normally with the region that disguises the weight really well i think but when you actually start to push on when you have to use the hydraulic brakes, that big brembos at the front, that's when you start to notice the 2.1 tonnes or [MUSIC] In terms of adjustability, look isn't ready, ready. It's just a case of just setting a road using extreme grip and acceleration and the precision of the chassis. Defenetry great [BLANK_AUDIO] we are at Millbrook catcher line continues all the way on down towards Luton, but stopping [MUSIC] After a day with a pole star to find myself thinking that if I was in the market for an Eevee as a daily driver, then this is probably the one that I would go for Like most TVs, it's afflicted with a hefty cowboy, also the driving experience and he rises to the levels of interesting rather than actually tactile and engaging hot hatch despite the connected ride this performance podcast. However, the looks the clever tech, the general sense of quality and even though zoning standards for all things that make this Interesting, undesirable. I suppose what I'm saying is that perhaps the biggest compliment I can give the pollster too, is that it's comfortable regardless of its power train