Alright, we’re a bit overdue for a long-term update on our Polestar 2. It’s been about 9 months and we’ve put just over 4,500 miles on the car. So yes, not a ton of miles as we’re still mostly working from home, but they’ve been a solid 4,500 miles.
Tire-ing
Early on, we did have to make a swap out of the tires. The Polestar 2 comes with summer performance tires, even for those living in winter/winterish weather climates. It’s definitely not ideal. I assume the summer tires help achieve whatever EPA mileage/range rating they set out for. Anyways, we don’t get terrible winters in the Washington, D.C. area, but enough that I wouldn’t want to drive this powerful car around in our very hilly neighborhood and driveway with those should snow and ice make an appearance (which they both did).
We opted to go with a set of Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires all around. We ordered them through TireRack and had their mobile installation service come swap out our tires right in our driveway. It was a seamless and easy experience and one we’d definitely use again in the future for tire needs. While we didn’t switch back to the summer performance tires this year, maybe we’ll try next summer.
Drive Me!
The drive of the Polestar 2 is still a delight. Instant power available at the blip of the pedal doesn’t really get old. Even our 3 year old loves the immediate surge of acceleration. Handling is well balanced and fairly adept for a tidy little sport sedan that still tips the scales more akin to something like a midsize SUV. Ride is definitely on the firmer side of the spectrum. While never too jarring, you to tend to feel most of the bumps and potholes in the road. The car does settle down quickly though, with minimal secondary motions. Near perfect balance for a performance sedan that you can still drive daily. I often seek to go out for a spirited drive in the Polestar, can’t say I ever did that with our Audi e-tron we had prior to this.
Can it roadtrip?
EVs are excellent around town. No gas needed and can easily perform an overnight top off/recharge at home via our level 2 charger. When it comes to roadtrips however, it does take a modicum of thought and adjustment to the trip cadence. Luckily there are some good apps to help like A Better Route Planner (ABRP). ABRP allows you to choose your specific EV and look at potential charging route options. You can set your start and end point, as well as what your starting state of charge would be. It tells you where to stop, how long the ideally charge for and show you your predicted state of charge upon arriving at your end location.
While many metrics discuss how long it takes for an EV to charge back up to 100%, you’ll realize that charging back up “full”, as you might have done with a gas tank, isn’t what happens. So you may have more frequent, but shorter charging stops. This helps optimize time as charging rates slow way down the higher you charge your battery. So it may be best to just do a 20 minute charging session and go say from a 20% state of charge up to 60% etc. Of course that 20 minutes depends on a charging station being available right when you get there, and that the charging station is functioning properly, both of which can be a bit suspect, but is improving. Luckily there are apps like PlugShare that can try to help you determine that end of the equation. Also should note that the embedded Google Maps within the Polestar’s native infotainment system is also able to help determine charging routing and planning, fairly similar to the ABRP recommendation.
I was able to make it from our DC area home, up to New York and back with a few quick charge stops each way. I was able to easily leverage our free 30 minute Electrify America charging sessions and never had an issue in immediate charger availability or operation during our quick trek. Is it something I’d want to do with my wife and daughter in tow? Probably not, but it also wasn’t as much a drag as I thought it would have been.
OMG OTA!
We have received yet another over the air software update for the Polestar. We’re now on what Polestar call version 2.2. This brought, among other things like elevated total driving range, Apple CarPlay. I can see the value in CarPlay for people reliant on apps like Waze and/or Apple Music etc, that somehow aren’t available through Google App Store for the onboard infotainment system. However, I haven’t found myself plugging in with it. I love the embedded Google Maps as well as the Spotify App with my account logged in already, so don’t see the need for CarPlay. Maybe for some more text message visualization it would be nice, but not worth having to plug in the phone each time, at least to me.
Quick Hits and Misses
Love the “phone as a key” feature. I can use my iPhone as the key to the car. I don’t need to take my phone out of my pocket and the doors will still unlock/lock as I touch the handle and I can just get in and drive. No need for the keys, very convenient, the future is now!
Flip out hook from the glove box is perfect for helping keep carry out/take away food bag secure!
Inside, the WeaveTech seats, while durable and have held up well and are easy to wipe up and clean, don’t seem to breathe as well as say a cloth seat or a perforated seat might. In our hot and ultra muggy summer weather it’s been slightly uncomfortable on warmer days or longer treks. Polestar does offer a ventilated seat option, but only with the leather interior upgrade, which we didn’t opt for.
Glass Roof: the solar tinting does an admirable job of cutting the glare and heat from above, but I’d still like the option of a full closing shade. Especially to keep rear passengers a bit more protected from the sun.
Software Hiccup: We did have one instance where the infotainment system wasn’t displaying the backup camera in reverse and the HVAC controls (on screen) also disappeared. Fixed the glitch with a soft reset/reboot of the entire system.
Non-extending sun visors: This was something we knew before buying. For the life of me I don’t understand the aversion that Volvo and Polestar have to providing customers with sun visors that can be extended (also many Porsches). The sun on the side window always comes in for my seating position exactly in the gap between the stubby little visor and the pillar of the door. Why?! Luckily I found these TuckVisors on Amazon. The full blackout shades are a bit stark and cut down on peripheral visibility significantly, but the tinted shades are nice and are effective. Per their name, they slide and tuck in well to the window edge, granted the window needs to be closed.
