If you haven’t heard of Polestar, you check some of our coverage on the Swedish brand here. Essentially, Polestar is the performance sub-brand of Volvo and it’s been teasing electric performance cars for the past year or so. Its most recent EV is the Polestar 2, an all-electric high-performance sportback-type-thing and it’s here to take on cars like the BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3.
The Polestar 2 was teased a little while back but it’s finally been revealed. Now that it’s here, we can see that it’s a bit oddly shaped, as it looks like a traditional sedan that’s been jacked up a bit and given a sort of liftback tailgate. It looks good but it’s a bit odd. Though, it’s handsome in a chunky, high-tech sort of way.
Looks aside, the main specs of the Polestar 2 are impressive. A 78kWh battery should give it around 275 miles of range, which is more than the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and every Tesla Model 3 except for the range-topping one. As for the base model Tesla Model 3, that has only 260 miles of range but does cost a bit less than the Polestar 2’s eventual base price of $45000, starting at $42,900. However, the Swede will only come in a Launch Edition flavor for the first year of its life, which will cost $63,000.
Sending power to its wheels will be two electric motors, one at each axle, that will combine for about 402 hp (300 kW). According to Polestar, it will get from 0-60 mph in under 5 seconds but no specifics were given. Don’t let its EV nature and pedestrian specs fool you, though, the Polestar 2 is designed to be a proper weapon. As-standard Öhlins dampers and Brembo brakes, along with a performance-minded chassis, should make the Swede very fun to drive.
Even more interesting is the fact that the Polestar 2 is the first vehicle to be equipped with Google’s automotive Android system. So its entire infotainment system runs on this new Android setup and it looks really slick and easy to use. We’re very curious to see how that works because Volvo is only one of several brands that have signed on with Google to use this new system, Audi being one of them.
This new Polestar 2 is a very interesting car. It comes from a very new brand but seems like a cohesive, well thought out EV package that packs performance, handling and impressive range. We’re still in the dark about most of the BMW i4’s details except for the fact that it will be a four-door liftback like the 4 Series Gran Coupe, so we can’t compare the two. But there’s no question that this new Swede will be a formidable competitor in the segment. We’ll see it officially at the Geneva Motor Show.
