Polestar 2 EV review - see where it beats the Tesla Model 3

this is the new polestar 2 electric car and it's a little bit like a samsung galaxy s10 mobile phone in the way that the design is cooler than the obvious iphone choice i mean look it's got a curved screen look at that it's like [Music] i believe i just kissed my mobile phone anyway the obvious choice for this size of electric car is of course the tesla model 3. so in this video i'm going to see how this new pole start measures up to the tesla i'm going to take it for a drive check out his performance three two one launch try its technology hey google driver's seat heating sorry i don't understand oh this is really do my head in test its range look i use a lot of energy then by suddenly accelerating show you all around the cabin i like it a lot see how practical it is that's really useful and do some other tests with it as well now if you're thinking about buying a new car if you click on the pop-out banner up there you can download the new car wow app you can browse through all our reviews of lots of different cars and we'll help you save thousands on a new car you can even use it to scan the number plate of any car using your phone's camera and it'll give you a valuation on that car so go download it it's free alternatively if you just want to do things the old-fashioned way you can just google car wow and go to our website anyway let's get on with the review let's start this video by talking about the design because you might be looking at this pole star 2 thinking wait a minute that's a bit familiar looks a bit like a volvo now there's a reason for that you see pole star was volvo's performance arm a bit like amg is to mercedes but the whole company was bought by gili a chinese car giants which also owns lotus and a load of other brands as well and they've put pole star as its own brand focusing on electric cars so the first one was the 140 000 pounds pole star one plug-in hybrid this is their second one hence the name pole star two now the guy who's in charge of pole star used to be in charge of the design of cars a volvo and that's why this car looks rather like a volvo in fact it's based on a volvo concept that's why it's got a grill it doesn't need a grill it's an electric car there's no engine there in fact this panel in future will be used for housing all the sensors and stuff it's got radar camera in it already but going down the line pole stars will still have a grill but they will be used more for centering rather than air you've got fake vents on it but it does look good doesn't it and you can tell the headlights the way they got the thor hammer effect that is very very volvo now moving down the side as standard the car gets 19-inch alloy wheels these are the upgraded 20s and they do look pretty badass the car itself is actually based on the xc40 platform that's why it's quite high look it's quite a tall car it's taller than a tesla model 3. there is one thing i've spotted that i'm not sure about there's like a sticker here with the car's name on it and the battery capacity and stuff like that i'll probably be peeling that off i like this bit though this crease then it comes round the back the best bit of this guy look at the back of this this light is so cool in fact i think the design of this car is really going to help sell it so i've said to various people who've been looking for an electric car get a tesla model 3. they're awesome only for them to come back to me going now the model 3 looks like a fish or it looks like it's melting or it just looks boring let's put them off the car i think they would like this car they'll be in the market for it it is definitely better looking let's see what it's like on the inside oh yes oh yes i'm definitely liking this it's minimalist but not in the same way that a tesla is so minimalist it's like an unfurnished flat this is like a coolly minimalist butt furnished scandinavian flat it's great and the materials lovely soft expensive feeling only as you get lower down do they get a bit scratchy but overall the quality does feel a bit better than in the tesla model 3. i really like the way that the pod style logo is reflected up in the roof i love the design of this gear selector as well all very simple and the metalist door handles steering wheels good as well though it's familiar it may have a pole star badge on it but it could quite easily have a volvo one because it come from volvo as has the switch gear that's not really a complaint is it it's not like oh no the steering wheel and the controls are from volvo that's such a cheap brand i like it a lot best bit though this infotainment screen so nice clear portrait infotainment screen but the best thing about it is that it's actually android it's not done by volvo it's done by the people who know how to do user interfaces and software it's brilliant it's got all that you need it's so easy to navigate between and of course being android your maps for google maps there's no need to connect your phone to it and run android auto it's absolutely epic and it's so easy to scroll through the different menus and choose the layout exactly how you want it plus you can sign in with your google account so it'll remember your preferences and stuff like that you've got spotify as well you've got all that you need you have a home button you have all your climate controls there so they're always on the screen if you need them this for me is the best infotainment system in any car right now you also get a digital driver's display and that is epic too because that can run google maps so it's just really clear you can cycle through a couple of views and it shows things like your charging your range and all that kind of stuff the only downside is is that the mapping is a bit dark but i know why they've done that because if it's brightly coloured it can be a bit more distracting when you're driving still i would like the option now there's one more benefit about it being part of google as well is that you get google assistant voice commands so i can just go hey google take me to london sorry i don't understand let me try again hey google navigate me to london navigating to london you have to find the right words but you can also use it to control various functions inside the car such as hey google put the seat heating on sorry i don't understand hey google driver's seat heating sorry i don't understand oh this is really do my head in hey google set temperature too low got it changing the temperature to low okay so it's not infallible but google assistant generally is pretty good honest all the apple fanboys okay it's nowhere near as good as siri no you just proved that point so yeah anyway with this car you get three-year subscription to the internet through google which is good and other standard kit includes the glass roof you have led matrix headlights so they'll blank out part of their beam so you don't dazzle on coming drivers you've got a harman kardon stereo with 600 watts got 13 speakers the speaker here doesn't have the harman kardon logo on it instead they're giving it a little badge here at the request of polstar don't know why they've done that just i guess a bit more minimalist a bit more swedish other stuff that you get includes wireless charging for your mobile phone so you don't need to plug it in at all obviously and electrically heated and operated seats they're lovely seats actually and they're covered in vegan friendly materials though you can pay extra for leather if you want to kill some animals it's up to you in terms of the seating position itself you see it higher than you might imagine once again that's the relationship to the xc40 but it's easy to find a nice driving position and there's plenty of adjustment in the steering wheel as well look at that it's all good it's quite a practical car here on the inside so underneath here look you can move your arm rest around look underneath here you have some cup holders and some hand sanitizer gel they've provided for us you also have a cup holder there though obviously it does then restrict what you can do with this arm rest the glove box is actually an average size so there's a bit for your manual and look they give you a handy cleany cloth for the screen so i can get rid of my grubby fingerprints the door bins let's see will they take why you just decided that i want the temperature low hey google turn the fan off okay turning off fans it's work that time you're just going to know the right words that's all the guy from pole star is going to be watching this when i was messing around with the seat heating because he did a demonstration for me earlier made it work perfectly and he'll be like smacking is there going matt you didn't say the right words you made us look stupid it it does all work fine so shut up apple fanboys anyway back to the door bin you can just about fit a big bottle in there and look you've got some extra cubbies just here look at either side you can put some stuff in there put the hand sanitizer in there fairly practical let's move into the back see what it's like there i will take my bottle with me check out the door bin the first thing to do which is obviously the most important thing when you get into the back of a car and i can just about squeeze it in there let's go on to the more important stuff knee room really really good look at that and i can stretch out under the seat in front now in some electric cars because the batteries are underneath the floor the seat is quite raised up and the floor is quite close to the seat so you end up with your knees almost running your ears out like you're in some kind of stress position however because this is based on the platform of the xc40 you have this transmission tunnel and so they filled that with some of the batteries which means that the floor can be a little bit lower so it's actually quite comfy for under thigh support slight problem is headroom look it's pretty tight you know i'm 179 centimeters and i've got that much space so people over six foot are gonna have to do a little bit of that old slouching light out aren't they but it's all right and you do have an armrest some cupholders there's a bit practicality you've got your ice fix points there as well and there's also isofix on the front passenger seat as well so you could carry through i can't get this back on that's the job with this thing so nightmare to get back on come on watson there we go so that's all good it's also good that you've got two usbc charging points there i forgot to tell you there's two usb ports in the front as well if you need those and you've got a couple of buttons there for your seat heating and finally some netage there if you need some netage so the backs all right not quite as roomy i don't think as a tesla model 3 but it's still pretty nice to sit back here and that roof really does help make it feel quite airy anyway let's check out the boot so you can open it using a button down there you can open it on the key you can open it button by the steering wheel or it comes as standard with hands-free opening and it's a pretty reliable one at that now the amount of space you got there is pretty decent it's like 405 liters so a bit less than a tesla model 3 and a bit more than a volkswagen golf what's good about this compared to the tesla model 3 is look it's a hatchback tailgate so it's just easier to load stuff in there's a bit of a load but it's hardly anything so it's easy to lift things in and out and there's a lot of nice useful features here such as some storage nets there a little strap there for stuff your 12 volt socket tie down points hawks and the interior air brake that you get with volvos you can see the link to volvos you get this on things like the xc40 so you can divide up your luggage and there's a bit more extra space under here as well that's all included in your 405 liters to be fair now you have a ski hatch there so you can carry longer items and still two passengers in the back if you need to carry really big heavy stuff you can fold the seats down and then you really feel the benefit of it being a hatchback because look you've got this long flat low bed that's really useful so i'll just shut this now what's he doing right now one of the benefits of an electric car is that there's no engine up front taking up space so that means you should have a front boot right and this sort of does let me show it to you it's quite big on a tesla model 3 the front boot but here on the pole star 2 not so much it's only about 35 liters which is space for your charging cables and that's it and that brings me on to five annoying things about the pulse star team this has to be the worst car key i have ever seen in my life it's as though it was a prototype and someone accidentally signed it off for a production you can't give this to a customer thankfully you will be able to get the ability to open the car with your mobile phone and the car will be getting an over-the-air update to be able to do that but for now you have to put up with this rubbish i often complain about cars where their rear windows don't go all the way down turn them out this pole start as bad as i've ever seen they go about halfway down hardly worth them opening at all now you might be wondering why i'm demonstrating that sat in the driver's seat it's because unless someone is sat in the driver's seat there's a sensor in it it won't let the people in the back put the windows down it's like the ignition isn't on unless someone's sat in the seat which is a bit annoying at the moment you can't get the polestar 2 with apple carplay to connect your apple phone normally the other way around you don't have android auto but you do have apple carplay so apple fanboys also just to confirm look the design of the samsung is definitely cooler than the design of this apple phone so there there is no space to store the load cover underneath the false floor other than kind of just doing a lot of that it's probably not acceptable this is a fairly heavy car it weighs 2.1 tonnes by comparison a tesla model 3 weighs just over 1.8 tons so it's a difference of 300 kilos which is a lot the tesla also beats this on another stat aerodynamics so this has a drag coefficient of 0.28 cd tesla's is 0.23 cd the lower the better the more aerodynamic the more efficient so this loses out don't worry there's still plenty to like about this car here's the car wow five call features it's like a bit of bass well this car uses air warfare technology which incorporates part of the bulkhead to amplify the base from the stereo you can get the pulsed r2 with a performance pack upgrade and that costs five grand and for that you get some 20 inch forged alloy wheels which are lightweight you also get bigger brakes including bigger discs and bigger brake calipers and their brembo brakes you also get olin's dampers which are adjustable and when i say just you don't press a button in the cabin you do actually have to twiddle a knob on the dampers so i don't think anyone's going to be doing that but still it's nice to have oh and look you get gold little dust covers for your tar valve smart soon you'll be able to do an over-the-air update for the infotainment system so that it has netflix and youtube which is really handy if you're charging the car you can then just watch some videos our videos you're the kind of person that likes to pull trailers well this can tow up to 1500 kilos which is pretty good for an electric car and you can get it with an electrically operated tow hitch as well the door mirrors a frameless design like the interior mirror so when you move it the whole unit moves rather than just the mirror panel inside like on most cars that is super super cool even the crow likes it yeah i see now let's talk about the prize so the pole star 2 starts from 49 900 pounds that's important you see it's 100 pounds less than 50 000 pounds and that means it qualifies for a 3 000 government grant for evs in the uk which is great now for that money you get a 78 kilowatt hour battery which means that you've got a range according to pulsar of 292 miles which is about 50 miles less than you get from a tesla model three long range now if you want to charge it from a three-pin socket it's going to take you 40 hours so you're not going to do that if you do it from an 11 kilowatt wall charger it'll take you eight hours so you can do it overnight if you do a 50 kilowatt dc charger it'll take about two hours and if you can find a 150 kilowatt charger it will do it in 40 minutes now polstar has teamed up with a company called plug surfing which gives you access to loads and loads of chargers all over the uk and europe with just one tag so you don't have to join to loads of different accounts thing is this is no substitute for having access to tesla's excellent supercharger network which quite frankly no other electric car has the pulse r2 has two electric motors one the front axle one the rear axle so you've got four wheel drive combined they produce 408 horsepower and 660 newton meters of torque polstar says his car can do not 60 in 4.7 seconds but i'm going to vouch that myself with my specialist timing gear up here i'm going to put the car into esc sports mode that's the only sport setting really you can alter the firmness of the steering but i'll just leave it in standard all i have to do now is just plant my right foot and off we go three two one launch come on what you're going to do what are you going to do 4.7 seconds my ass 4.16 seconds a tesla model 3 performance that'll do not 16 3.2 seconds the long range model 3 will do it in 4.4 seconds so that figure there is quicker than the model 3 long range one of the great things about electric cars is the fact that you can drive them just using the accelerator alone because when you lift off the accelerator you get regenerative braking so it's the motor working reverse slowing the car down but recouping energy and putting it back into the battery so on this car i can actually alter the amount of that braking so i can have it off so just like coast when i lift off which is what it's doing now i can have it low so it's not too intrusive but it still does break quite a lot a bit more than a normal automatic car would and then i can put it into standard and then it really is pretty intense when you lift off it's like you're touching the brakes so you should just be able to drive without touching the brakes and i'm going to drive around now without touching the brake i might crash into someone hopefully i won't oh i'm hovering over the brake pedal not going to use it though oh collision avoidance came in thought i was going to crash it i said in front oh what they doing still not touching the brake the person in front is driving like a bit of a when i see what the suspension's like i don't know find some potholes it feels a little bit on the firm side it's probably the upgraded suspension which feels a bit like a downgrade right now i don't think i'll go for the performance pack i'll just leave as is here's a speeder how will it deal with this this is quite abrupt speed hump so yeah you do feel it oh yeah when you drop off that it's not quite as comfortable over buns as a tesla model 3. it's not awful i can live with it i really do like this display there's another one there on the instrument binnacle which shows what's happening whether you're getting power from the motor or you're charging the batteries with the braking there you can see when i lifted off the accelerator that white line just showed that it's regening the batteries i wonder if i'll go around this mini roundabout in one go come on yes look at that oh i'm gonna make it yes the turning circle on this is pretty good actually this whole one pedal thing makes driving electric cars just so easy that's it i had to take the brake then automatic intervention collision avoidance the car was helping me break as well because it knew i was going to smack into the car in front who is that i wonder if it'll be able to cope with going into that parking area there it breaks quite firmly actually look at this look i can actually get up close and then oh i'm gonna crush don't crash i think i was chanting it a little bit there now it's probably worth just seeing what this car's like for parking so you've got a thick pillar here the view out the back window is pretty awful it doesn't matter though because i've got those 360 degree cameras now it doesn't have the system that you can get with a tesla where it'll actually park itself for you with you outside the car that's all fancy gimmickry really not many people use that that's all i need to be able to park without crashing so that one pedal thing definitely works so it's good in town apart from the suspension's a little bit firm let's see what it's like on the motorway hopefully i can do a bit better with the economy because at the moment i'm performing pretty badly one of the settings you can do in this car is to put creep on so it's like in a normal automatic so when you lift off the brake it will just ease forward but it just sounds weird isn't it being in creep mode so what's this car like on the motorway well it's really good actually the suspension just smooths out when you're getting quicker so it's relaxing the seats are supportive also it's quite in here don't really notice the tyre noise bit of wind noise but that's it really relaxing to traveling i can use the piloted assist cruise control system to basically take care of absolutely everything it's going to use radar to keep me a safe distance from the car in front and it'll auto steer to keep me in lane let's set it for 70 miles an hour see what that does for the economy now what it won't do is what the tesla will do and that's change lanes for you also i think the system in the tesla is a bit better at reading the vehicles around it whereas this does get a little bit caught out occasionally but still it does take the stress at longer journeys do you like the car yeah good car yeah that's the thing the design does stand out people like the look in this car now one of the great things about electric cars is the instant performance when you need to suddenly overtake and i'm going to illustrate that with this hand sanitizer so i'm going to floor it to overtake this slow moving car will that go into the back seat it certainly did the pickup is rapid question is though what's all that done to my energy usage look i use a lot of energy then by suddenly accelerating you can see that has gone all the way up there it's very high but overall it's not so bad now here's a twisted bit of row let's see what this pulse r2 is like is it sporty feeling the steering's a little bit on the odd side it's a quite artificial feeling the one pedal effect does make it feel like a go-kart a little bit and obviously the instant acceleration from the electric motor it doesn't lean much in the corners at all you got a lot of grip but i wouldn't describe it as being fun once again tesla model 3 just has that edge in terms of the handling capabilities i'm not sure many people buying these cars are really going to care that much it holds the road well and that's what it needs to do and it does that fine now i've come to the end of my time with the polestar 2 so i've got to take the car back but before i do i just want to check my energy consumption so it is below 40. let's see what it is exactly by using the trip computer here so i've averaged 35 kilowatts per 100 miles which means that my range would be this number on the screen here and that's through a mix of driving so that's probably what you can expect from this car in reality now i don't know whether that's good or knocks i can't see it right now so i'll give you a selection of faces to apply to it so is it or or there's only one last thing for me to do hey google play jessica by the allman brothers band on spotify so then what's my final verdict on the new pole star 2 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the new pulsed r2 it may be not quite as quick or as good to drive as a tesla model 3 but it's not far off and it is better looking inside and out do you agree with my verdict let me know in the comments section also please subscribe to this channel for more videos and if you click on the deals box to the right you can see how much you can save on a new car at carl wow or click on the video windows below to watch another of my videos

Channel: carwow

Views: 2,590,523

Rating: 4.8118758 out of 5

Keywords: carwow, mat watson, 4k review, car review, car review 2019, car review 2020, polestar, polestar 2, polestar 2 ev, polestar electric car, polestar 2 electric car, volvo polestar, volvo electric car, polestar 2 review, polestar 2 review 2020, polestar 2 review 2021, new polestar, polestar review, best electric car, electric car review, tesla, tesla model 3, best electric car 2020, best electric car 2021

Id: rEsqhY9TCt8

Length: 24min 13sec (1453 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BurgerBurnerCooker]

There's just so much potential with pure android based infotainment system, like playing a certain Spotify podcast when turning on the car, automatically set your navigation based on your calendar and daily routine etc. Also tons of home automation can be integrated (I know some can already been done thru various ways but this would make it seamless within one system and less security holes). And knowing Google will at least support it for safety patches in the coming years is reassuring. And I hope manufacturers put in good chipset to make it last more than 5 years.

Definitely on my list for the next car but needs more mileage test data for me to pull the trigger. I was thinking Volvo will be like the Germans that underestimate mileages but from Matt's drive it's not the case. 0-60 in low 4s is dope tho.

There seem to me a lot of parts sharing with Volvo, even not necessarily bad, but can we please have an electronically controlled steering wheel column that links to seat memories? It gets cumbersome when you have 2 drivers in the house.

Last how are these going to be sold in the states? They say they will be available by Sept which is just 40 days away, but there are like only 3 P* experience centers. Thru Volvo dealerships I guess?

[u/surferpeasant]

Love the way the seats folds down!

[u/whispering_pilot]

This looks much sexier than any Tesla though.

[u/[deleted]]

It looks good and unique the range is kinda a low when he showed at the end right 222miles

[u/[deleted]]

Was he hurt by an Apple fan recently? The number of times he says “ha! What about that Apple Fanboys!” Is pretty weird.

[u/activedusk]

I think it's good overall but I have several complaints and disagree on several things. First disagreements, the sticker with battery pack size and peak motor power is actually cool and useful for someone interested in EVs and it's tastefully applied. Second I don't care the keyfob is shit because the smartphone is supposed to work as a key. Third I'm tired of hearing people who review cars complain about a stiff ride and low road comfort of performance package versions, they did the same thing to the Model 3 Performance when it launched in the US and I find it ironic they used that car as an example of more comfortable ride and suspensions. Lastly I disagree the infotainment is the best right now for a couple of reasons like the bezel of the tablet like display is huge and what was supposed to be screen surface is just a black rectangle making it seem like a late 2000 Chinese cheap tablet and the graphics have not changed at all since a over a year ago when it was first shown making me doubt the effort they will put into updating it over time.

Dislikes, the weight is as much as a Model S while having a smaller exterior and interior space. The battery pack shape makes it seem it's not a ground up design as well as the aerodynamics which seem to hurt what could be a better EV if done right. I also dislike the small front storage for that huge hood, brings home the idea this wasn't electric chassis from the start and it's hurting not just range and interior comfort due to the tunnel but also storage space.

The good things are that the infotainment software is fast and snappy, this might be the first to rival Teala in that area and the charging speed of 150kW if I got it right is more than enough for a 2020 launched EV. The performance also slots in nicely in terms of price and competition. I am concerned about how fast it will become obsolete though with Tesla gains in efficiency and others like Ford brute forcing range with 100kWh packs around the same price. It's a fast evolving price segment.

I'm also not sure if it's really a sedan with a hatch, it's sort of a crossover imo.

[u/ADubiousPrinter]

This things ugly.

[u/WC_EEND]

my biggest issue is that, unlike on Volvos, if you want the nice yellow seat belts, you have to get the 6k performance pack. You can't just order those as an option.

[u/[deleted]]

is it a suv? crossover? lifted sedan? weirdest car ive ever seen