The Polestar 1 Is the World's Coolest $150,000 Volvo

this is the brand new pull star one and it's the very first vehicle from volvo's new pole star brand which is why it's called the pole star one this has a sticker price of over 150 000 dollars it has more than 600 horsepower and it does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds it's unlike any volvo you have ever seen before which is why it isn't a volvo and today i'm going to review it [Music] before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my new online enthusiast car auction website with cool cars from the modern era if you're looking to buy a cool car from the 1980s and up cars and bids has the best selection and variety with auctions running all the time of cool interesting cars and if you're looking to sell a cool car from the modern era cars and bids is the place you will get the most views and the most money for your cool car check out carsandbids.com let's start with the basics volvo has been adding more and more plug-in hybrid and electric models to its lineup over the last few years and the top trim level versions have been called the pole star i reviewed the volvo s60 star last year well now volvo has decided to spin off pole star into its own brand completely separate from volvo itself sort of like lexus is separate from toyota so this isn't the volvo pole star now polestar is the brand and what a car to launch a brand with the styling is gorgeous but there is so much more to it than that like i said it has a starting price above 150 000 and it has 620 horsepower and 740 pound-feet of torque it's amazing unlike anything you've ever seen out of volvo before and since polstar is an electric brand this car plugs in it has a plug-in hybrid powertrain meaning there's a gasoline engine and electric motors that all work together and it's going to be rare volvo says they're only going to make 1500 units of the polestar one for the entire world which means this will be on porsche carrera gt levels of rarity which is pretty crazy although a more practical fully electric polestar 2 with four doors is also coming soon so why the new brand name i suspect the reason is to compete with tesla here you have a cool new car company that everybody's talking about whereas volvo is a traditional legacy car company that everybody already knows about so you want a new brand name to shake it up and pulstar is i guess the way forward and this car is leading the way so today i'm going to review the polestar one and i'm going to take you on a tour and show you all of the interesting quirks and features of the latest luxury electric car challenger then i'm gonna get it out on the road and drive it and then i'll give it a doug score all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the polestar one with my very favorite quirk of this whole car it's a round back before i get to it let's talk rear end styling i think the back of this car is gorgeous so many automakers are going with cuts and gouges and weird aggressive lines volvo has made it all about simplicity and that really shows through on this car their design language translates perfectly to a coupe and i think it's really beautiful and simplistic and gorgeous back here you will also notice in back there's this logo in the center that would be the pole star logo not volvo again there's no volvo anywhere on this car just pole star and that is their logo but anyway next i want to move on to my very favorite quirk which is located in the trunk to get there you press the trunk button on the key fob the trunk pops open and then what exactly is this in the cargo area you can see there's like a window at the back with all these wires what is going on here well you know how in a lamborghini you can see the engine if you look through the engine cover because it's glass and that's really cool well in this car you can see some of the hybrid electric componentry in the cargo area because there's a little glass panel that lets you look through it so you can see the wires labeled for dc charge ac charge the batteries all this stuff if you want to when you open up the trunk and i have to say that's certainly very quirky and frankly kind of cool and yes this will be on the production polestar one a window in your cargo area to see some hybrid stuff it's a brave new world very different from looking at a lamborghini v12 through the engine cover anyway some other interesting items in the trunk while i'm back here over on the left side you have this little compartment with a leather tab pull that and there are a few tools in here like a fuel filler and a can of tire sealant in case you'll need it over on the other side maybe more interesting you have this bag that looks perfectly sized to carry a toaster but if you open this up this is where your charging supplies are you're cable to plug the car in it's also worth noting that this bag was designed to fit in this exact spot and in fact it buttons itself into place so you can stick it in your trunk and keep it there and it won't roll around or slide around when you're driving your pulse r1 last interesting item in the trunk bit of a drawback in this car over 150 grand and you don't get a power trunk instead you have to close it manually a small thing but something you'd think they would do at this price point and next up since i'm around back another interesting item back here is on the trunk lid where you can see there's a cutout piece that is for the rear spoiler this car has a little rear spoiler that goes up when you're above 60 miles an hour to provide more down force in your pole star or you can put it up yourself if you want to look cool there's a little button on the driver's door panel you can press and then the spoiler pops up just in case you feel like you need more down force or more likely more attention you can also press that button the other direction and then the spoiler goes right back down and the car has this more clean look a rear spoiler in a volvo that pole star but a volvo how crazy the other thing i want to talk about when i'm on the outside of this car is just how beautiful it is i think this is a gorgeous car and not just the rear which i've already mentioned has a really clean look the whole car is just beautiful from every angle again other automakers are doing cuts and gouges and these bold expressive details to try to grab your attention volvo polestar is just going simple and modern and clean and it looks fantastic as a result i truly love the way that this car looks and all modern volvo models and this is a really really beautiful luxury coupe but anyway next we move on to getting into the polestar one now the key itself is pretty standard just a regular volvo looking key except with the polestar logo on it instead of the volvo logo nothing interesting there but you do have interesting door handles you can see here they definitely don't look like your typical volvo or car door handles at all now right now the car is locked and you know that because the door handle is flat on the car if you want to unlock the car and you have the key in your hand just walk up to the door handle push it and then it pops out as you can see take another look at that if you want to lock the car with the key in your pocket in your hand you just tap the back of the door handle and then it locks again take another look at that and that's how you lock and unlock your polestar one now of course you can also do this with the key press the unlock button the door handle pops out as you can see or press the lock button and the door handle goes right back into its home and then it is locked now you might be wondering what happens if this motor breaks is there some backup solution to get in there is when the door handle is popped out you can see there's a keyhole underneath the handle assembly although i'm not exactly sure how you would get to that keyhole if the motor was broken you'd have to kind of pry it out which sounds dangerous and expensive but there is another way into your polestar one if the door handle fails all these automakers are doing cool special different door handles i think because tesla started this trend with its pop-out door handles and now everybody thinks their door handles have to be interesting but next up before i climb inside i want to talk about one more quirky item on this door panel that is far more interesting than the door handle and that would be the mirror which is very unusual now from the back it just looks like your regular outside mirror but when you come around to the front the mirror part you can see it isn't mounted in like a housing instead the mirror looks like it's one thing with the actual mirror housing like they're one unit this is different from a normal car mirror you can see which is typically mounted in a housing so when you move around the mirror the housing stays put but the mirror itself moves not on the pole star so you might be wondering if you design it this way how exactly do you adjust the positioning of the mirrors for visibility and the answer is when you move the mirrors the entire mirror housing moves along with the mirror take a look at this i'm moving the mirror on the inside and the whole assembly is moving on the outside i've never seen this before in any other car with power mirrors and you would think this would have some effect on aerodynamics you move the mirror in a certain direction and it sends the wind in a completely different direction than intended and it may in fact do that but that's what they've done here anyway the entire mirror housing moves when you adjust the mirrors very strange design detail and next up we move inside the polestar one where there are quite a few interesting quirks worth noting i'm going to start right here with the first thing you notice when you open the door the yellow seat belt it's actually sort of a yellowish orange and that is the pole star color it used to be this cool bright blue signified pole star but they've changed it to this kind of orange yellow which still looks pretty good now interestingly they've only used the pole star unique signature color in three places on the polestar one one is the seat belt which is a pretty standard place automakers like to make a cool color also the brake calipers another pretty standard cool color spot on a car and also the tire valve stem cap which is kind of strange they use the pole star color in three spots and the valve stem cap is the third not the stitching not some trim on the interior the valve stem cap kind of strange but that's what they've decided to do now next up i want to talk about the seats because there's a lot to say about this seat so i'm going to start back with the seat belts which are unusual because on the belt itself has printed the words since 1959 which i guess is true of volvo but again this isn't a volvo it's a pole star and it's not since 1959 in fact this company was created like 10 months ago i think so it's kind of weird to see that volvo tie-in on a car they're so desperately trying to convince people isn't a vulva but anyway the seats themselves one strange thing about them they are white not that unusual except that the back seats are black so you have two different seat colors in here the front seats different color from the back seats another notable seat item is the leather on the seats absolutely beautiful with this gorgeous trim pattern all around the seats i think this is a really really cool look very distinctive and it feels a lot classier more luxurious than your standard volvo model with this sort of luxury leather trim around your seats and finally one other interesting item worth noting in this area is the door sill you can see this panel is carbon fiber you have the pole star logo at one end and then a long straight line and then it says pole star one and gives you a bit of an explanation of the vehicle high modulus cfrp body structurally optimized carbon fiber layout a lot of words there a lot of syllables but i guess that could give you some explanation of exactly what this is in case you were confused about whether it had a high modulus cfrp body it does anyway next up moving into the interior of the polestar one a few interesting quirks in here one is the shifter you don't get just a standard shifter in this car instead it's crystal glass you can see through it very beautiful very upscale and it has the polestar logo on it very subtle a very nice looking shifter in this car much better than your standard plastic another cool touch in here is the panoramic roof this car has a giant piece of glass over the entire interior one thing i think is kind of neat with this panoramic roof is that these ceiling controls actually sort of stick out into the panoramic roof it makes it look like they're floating just a bit which is a nice touch and again kind of a cool look with that panoramic roof but it is a very large piece of glass and makes you feel less claustrophobic than in most modern coupes with that said the rest of this interior is volvo it's very very volvo in here the infotainment system is the exact same as volvo same with the controls around it the climate vents the steering wheel exactly the same from other volvo models and basically the general layout the look the feel the materials it's a lot of volvo in here and not necessarily distinctive from other volvo models the interior definitely doesn't say different brand pole star totally new like the exterior does in fact in here it just pretty much says volvo now there are pros and cons to this one of the benefits is that volvo makes a fantastic interior one of the best in the car industry everything is really nice even in lower level volvo so it translates pretty well to this more expensive car but of course the drawback is it isn't unique you get into an xc60 and you have a lot of this same interior stuff for 50 60 000 in a compact crossover that some suburban family might drive and here you are on your ultra special 150 000 limited production polestar and it's basically the same stuff again not bad stuff just not unique stuff one thing i do love in this car though and in all new volvo models is this infotainment system again same one in other volvos and it works fantastically one of my very favorite infotainment systems in the entire car industry one big reason for that is that it's vertical mounted like you would hold a smartphone which is a configuration we're all already used to since we are all using smartphones you even have a little home button in the bottom center to bring you back to the home screen very intuitive and very responsive to your touch easy to use i really really like this infotainment system truly one of the best in the car industry now even though there's a lot of volvo stuff in here that also means there are a lot of interesting volvo quirks because new volvo models are pretty quirky one unusual item is in the infotainment system you can choose how the stereo sounds and one of your choices is the gottenberg concert hall which is the concert hall in gothenburg sweden where volvo's come from it's not just a generic concert hall they apparently optimize the sound experience to sound like that specific concert hall which is a wonderful little volvo quirk another great volvo quirk is in the center console the start stop switch isn't just a button like in basically every other car instead it's this cool switch you actually twist and then the car starts just like twisting your keys back in the day i love how that looks and feels same deal with the drive mode selector not just a dial you twist but instead this little textured wheel that you move up and down and you can use it to choose your various different drive modes which show up on your infotainment screen some nice volvo quirks since this is a very volvo interior but before you think this interior is all volvo it isn't open up the center console storage area and you will find the cleaning cloth for the infotainment screen and it's a pole star cleaning cloth wrapped in pole star packaging and you open it up and it's covered in pole star logos so there might be a lot of volvo in here but you do get a separate special pole star infotainment screen cleaning cloth which does make you feel better than if you got a regular volvo one and next up time to climb into the back seat of the polestar one but before i do that i want to mention this door is absolutely massive unbelievably large and long and heavy just very very heavy and huge of course they do that they make it so big to help facilitate easier entry and exit into the back seat so there's more room for rear passengers but when you open up the door you can see there's a label on the door jam that specifically says no one should sit in back if they are over four foot nine inches tall that's the height cut off for being comfortable in the back seat so i being six foot three inches tall will now climb in back unfortunately getting into the back seats isn't as easy as you might think there's no tab you can pull to just slide the seat forward and push the backrest forward in one motion instead to move the seat forward you have to actually use the power seat adjustment buttons which as you can see pretty much takes forever now there is a little switch on the back of the front seat that rear passengers can use to move the seat forward but it also uses the power seat and so it takes the same amount of time and that switch doesn't operate if the car is running only if it's turned off so if you've pulled over to let passengers out you have to turn off the car for them to use that little switch otherwise you have to just push the power seat buttons but now the seat is forward and i can finally climb into the back of course climbing into the back not exactly the easiest thing you have to undo the seat belt from the seat so you have space and then you get back here and you discover that that four foot nine inch warning was actually probably a bit optimistic i obviously can't sit back here with my head up because of the curvature of the top it's really not a place for adults to want to be and frankly you wouldn't really want to be back here anyway unless it was essential because there's nothing at all going on back here aside from the fact that the rear seats are black and the front seats are white there's nothing else interesting or quirky in this back seat you just have two rather small seats for two rather small rear passengers i will say one cool thing back here is the fact that the panoramic roof comes all the way back over the rear seats and the result of that is that it doesn't feel as claustrophobic as you might think back here given how tiny it is you have this giant glass roof panel and you can see out and it almost feels like you're on safari looking up in the trees to see the birds anyway when you want to climb out of the back seat that is rather a difficult task but you can do it once the front seat has moved forward but then of course you have to move the front seat back again with the power buttons and that takes forever and finally we move under the hood in the polestar one and like i mentioned this is a plug-in hybrid meaning that it has a gasoline engine and electric motors as well future pole star models will apparently be all electric but i guess volvo wanted to make sure this one got to market first as sort of a flagship car and they wanted to get as much performance out of it as possible hence the gasoline engine as well and if performance was their goal they certainly succeeded like i said 620 horsepower 704 pound-feet of torque 0-60 in 3.7 seconds all-wheel drive truly impressive amazing numbers and that 0-60 time is even more amazing when you consider that the curb weight of this vehicle is 5200 pounds that's not an exaggeration by comparison the rolls-royce cullinan weighs 5 900 pounds and that is a giant luxury suv filled with wood and aluminum and leather and carpeting and they only ever even find out the weight at the very end when they put it on the scale and they say oh that's what it weighs it only weighs 700 pounds more than this volvo performance coupe but this car overcomes the weight with the performance numbers to back it up and one of the main reasons i suspect it's so heavy is because the electric motors and the batteries this car can do about 50 miles of pure electric driving before the gasoline powertrain kicks in that's according to the epa polstar says it can do even more 50 miles is actually a pretty good number for a plug-in hybrid especially a performance plug-in hybrid just by comparison the plug-in hybrid porsche cayenne can only go 13 miles before the gas engine kicks in with 50 60 miles you can actually do some stuff without ever using the gas engine unless you need to so that's nice to have this can be used as a true electric car for most people's commutes and day-to-day living by the way one last little item worth noting take a look at the vin you can see it starts with l this car is built in china volvo has a factory there and they're starting to make volvo's pole star models in china and if you're a vin geek like me you can see polstar's code is going to be ps i guess so l for china p s for pole star and that's what the vins of these cars will look like and so those are the quirks and features of the new pole star one now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives all right driving the pole star one the floor here [Music] wow wow well that's pretty impressive and unusually silent it's interesting because when you're going this fast in a car especially a two-door car it's usually a porsche or an f-type or an r8 or whatever you hear it you feel it and whatever not this car this is a comfortable and insulated like a bentley but a lot cheaper than that and it's pretty impressive that this car is able to overcome its rather substantial weight and still feel that quick and it's instant too now i have to say uh there's a few things i really like about this car the extra styling is unquestionably one of them it's a beautiful car and it's not just like good looking it's kind of good looking in a daring way it's cool it's interesting it's special people notice it a little bit on the road nobody knows what it is very much under the radar but still like you know what is that thing uh it's a cool car and it's it really is an unusual special kind of interesting look to it um and not in a bad way so many cars are unusual and you look at me like ah this is unusual and it's like that i don't know what that is but i like it the acceleration of course is also fantastic i really like that and i like this interior it is the same as other volvo models but it has you know the highest trim from the highest trim volvo models but also it just volvo makes great interiors i think your biggest drawback with this car unquestionably is going to be the price tag brand name situation uh and there's gonna be people who watch this video and say that is so overpriced you could get a 911 you get an f-type you could get whatever and that's true an amg gt that's all true you could but keep in mind those cars are relatively common compared to this mobile's only making 1500 of these for the world so it's not like they're trying to sell this in numbers that compete with the 911. this is going to be a super low production car that's kind of designed to get people to know the pole star brand and they look at and say wow that's a beautiful car you know what is that and then maybe they buy the pulse star 2 or the pull star 3 whenever that comes out and so it's not really intended to be like a production car 911 competitor it's supposed to be like a halo car that introduces people to the brand in very small numbers and so yeah it's expensive especially for a new brand but i don't really think that that's a drawback to the car when you consider the type of production numbers they're going to sell it in it's just a really unusual rare vehicle the real problem though that i think this car has is it's a coupe you know in a world now dominated by suvs all brands when they come out with a new brand genesis does this everybody is doing this they they still are debuting coops and and sedans as their first car tesla made this mistake too and it's like that's not what people want people want suvs and i think that's the real drawback of this car it is a big coupe i think if this was like a cool suv at this price point with this performance that have no trouble selling them not that they're going to have trouble selling them but i think it would be a more compelling package but aside from the big coupe thing aside from the price point this is a cool car it is beautiful it is fast it is neat to see the polestar brand sort of taking off and by the way 620 horsepower and 740 pound-feet of torque this car is a monster i would have preferred a halo car that was a little bit haloier though like a mid-engine audi r8 style vehicle but when you're pole star you don't do maybe super cars you're trying to show off you do modern styling well you do modern interiors well and so that's that's the focus of this car and it succeeds in that and so that's the pole star one this car certainly isn't for everyone it's a 150 000 sports car that isn't a porsche or a ferrari or an audi r8 but instead it's some new brand and it's electric but this car is beautiful it's surprisingly thrilling to drive and with only 1500 of these being made for the entire planet you get one of these and you'll certainly stand out from all the dentists in your suburb who have a 911. anyway now it's time to give the pole star a doug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the polestar one is beautiful really striking in its modern gorgeous simplicity and it gets an eight out of ten acceleration does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and it gets a 7 out of 10. handling is good but not true sports car level it gets a 6 out of 10. fun factor is pretty high it's really quick it's exciting to drive and it handles reasonably well it gets a 7 out of 10. cool factor is higher than i expected i was surprised at how many people noticed this car and asked about it and it is special it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 35 out of 50. next up are the daily categories and features the polestar is really well equipped with a lot of great modern tech and it gets an 8 out of 10. comfort is good not quite bently level but very supple and it gets a 7 out of 10. quality is excellent inside and out though some materials could be a bit better and i worry about long-term reliability it gets a 7 out of 10. practicality is normal for a car like this and it gets a 4 out of 10. finally value and that's this car's biggest problem 150 000 plus for a new brand with a plug-in hybrid it's a tough sell but it is a beautiful car with some excellent performance the saving grace is a super limited production run so they'll likely still sell out still it only gets a 5 out of 10 for a total daily score of 31 out of 50. add it up and the dug score is 66 out of 100 which places it here against some relevant cars the polestar one lags behind some more established rivals like the bentley continental gt and the porsche 911 this is a beautiful futuristic car for people willing to take a gamble on a new brand it's not a big buyer base but then polestar doesn't plan to sell many of these cars you

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 1,864,984

Rating: 4.8571687 out of 5

Keywords: polestar 1, polestar 1 review, volvo polestar, polestar, polestar review, volvo polestar 1, volvo, polestar one review, polestar one, volvo polestar one, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: ibNs12W2hUk

Length: 27min 35sec (1655 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/pryan886]

Volvo’s have been around longer than 1959 (they were founded in 1927).

The “Since 1959” on the buckle indicates the year the seatbelt was invented. By Volvo.

[u/realtomatocatsup]

I wish it would have been a modern P1800, like it originally was supposed to be, but it is still a gorgeous car, nonetheless.

Also, it weighs 5,200 lbs. Holy. Shit. She's a chonker.

[u/pryan886]

CFRP = Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer.

The carbon trim on the door sill is telling you the car has a a Hi-Mod (extra stiff) carbon fiber body. Like a McLaren... or an i3.

[u/cheese_enthusiast2]

?? he said that it does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds like 100 times throughout the video and then gave it a 7 for acceleration, mentioning that it does 0-60 in 4.2?

[u/rogersmj]

The whole mirror housing moving when you adjust the mirrors is super weird. Why on earth would they do that?

Also, that crystal shifter is already grubby looking. I guess if you have this car you have to...um...polish your knob a lot.

[u/Fradiccus]

I am one of the engineers who worked on it. Drove it for about 1500km in Germany as part of a testing expedition last year. And I only have a single thing to say about it - It is absolutely fucking amazing. If I had 150k laying around I would get one in a heartbeat.

[u/nothingaboutme]

This is probably one of the best looking cars in it's price point on sale today. Definitely the best looking hybrid, imo.

[u/unitedfuck]

This colour scheme and those wheels make it look fucking incredible.

I don’t say it lightly but I honestly think this might be my favourite looking car.

[u/Minto107]

Volvo's design is still so gorgeous even after 5 years since the XC90 introduction. Shame its only going to be 1500 cars and there most likely won't be a version in regular Volvo lineup(I'd be down for a C90) BTW does anyone know if it has 112MPH speed limit as other 2020/21 Volvos?