Zander Drives Cars

When I started my website back in May of 2022, one car evaded me endlessly. One car simultaneously made me elated when I would see it, but upset when I couldn’t get near it. One car had me emailing dealerships and PR teams all across the Baltimore Washington Metropolitan Area. One car had made me almost lose my sanity trying to find it. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Koons Volvo of Whitemarsh had one show up on their lot. Within twelve hours, I was on my way to drive my golden egg, my gleaming trophy, my electric poster girl: The Polestar 2. Specifically, a Polestar 2 Launch Edition. Here is a totally non-biased and fair review of the car I have been chasing for months.

Compared to other electric sedans, the 2 rides on the higher side. This is a weird trend that manufacturers have been starting to do with EVs, with another prominent example being the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Like the Ioniq 5, the Polestar 2 is a five-door hatchback or “liftback” as Polestar calls it. This means that the rear glass is attached to the trunk when you open it like a regular hatchback. The 2’s design is noticeably chunkier than its competitors and has more pronounced edges and creases, unlike some super smooth and slippery EVs out there. Personally, I think it’s a great change of pace and helps with sales, as first-time EV buyers will most likely want to buy something that looks reminiscent of a gas-powered car. The Polestar logo is dotted around the car’s exterior in multiple places as well. Aside from a couple of Volvo-labeled parts under the frunk, there is almost no sign of its parent company when looking at it from the outside. Polestar has done a great job making the 2 (exterior-wise) feel like its own entity that is proud of the company it comes from. The only exterior detail I wasn’t so sure about was the application of the sticker all Polestars have on the bottom of the front doors. I have no fundamental issue with what the sticker says, but when getting close to it, you can tell that it was lazily pasted onto the doors and was slightly askew. This might be fine for most people but my mild OCD went insane almost immediately after seeing it.

The Polestar’s interior is weird. Not weird in a bad way, just weird. For one, there is noticeably less part sharing than there was on the previous Polestar 1, but the steering wheel and its stalks, along with the air vents were standard Volvo parts bin. I, again, have no issue with Volvo interiors, but if Polestar wants to create their own identity, they need to cut back even more. Aside from that, most of the 2’s interior was its own thing. For one, the dashboard was covered in this cloth-like material that both looked cool and was fun to run my fingers across. Polestar (and Volvo) have started cutting back on the use of wood and leather options from their cars as a way to become more environmentally conscious, and while making this decision might sound like it leads to a sea of cheap plastics or mono-texture dashboards, you would be wrong. Almost everything you touch in this car feels different than you would think. The door pockets also have that cloth-like material and texture as well, and the light grey color of it offsets the darker seats nicely. Speaking of seats, these are marginally the same as the ones found in most Volvos, which while part sharing, is a very good part to share as they are super comfortable and very supportive. The whole interior generally just feels well laid out and well put together.

The center console is also an in-house job looking different than the flatter one found in Volvos. The shifter, while having a poke-through space in the middle, has a small illuminated Polestar logo to remind you what car you’re in. While on the subject of Polestar logos, there is also one towards the front of the moonroof. Back-seat passengers will be reasonably comfortable and have plenty of headroom due to the high ceilings caused by the aforementioned moon roof. Legroom is fine, I would call it premium economy but nothing that will blow your socks off. Sitting in the back you’ll find your standard flip-down center console as well as two air vents, a 12-volt socket, and heated seats. The same door pocket design is also continued in the rear doors. The trunk has a huge load space due to it technically being a “hatchback,” and the frunk has enough space to store a charging cable and potentially a suitcase or so. Because the 2 is built on a gasoline platform, most of the car’s wiring sits where the engine bay would be, meaning there’s less space than what you’d find in the equivalent Model 3.

The Polestar 1, the brand’s first car, shared the same Volvo entertainment system. It was fine, but in order for the brand to be seen as independent, it needed its own UI. Thankfully, the Polestar 2 has that. The center screen in the Polestar 2 is angeled outwards unlike the sunken screens found on Volvos. Underneath the screen are some basic controls for volume, stopping and starting a song, as well as your heated rear window and hazard lights. Aside from that, everything is controlled within the screen. Polestar’s UI works pretty well, and the black and orange color scheme, while looking very familiar to most teenagers, felt new and different. It is easy to navigate through and while there are a decent amount of menus, there is a button on the bottom of the screen you can press to immediately take you back to the home screen to view your basic functions. Recently, Polestar announced that they would be adding Apple CarPlay to their models to compliment the standard Andriod Auto system. While this car did have CarPlay, it wasn’t wireless and required me to connect my phone through Bluetooth. While this did work, I had issues getting the audio to play in the car and eventually had to go to the audio tab and manually reset my connection for it to work. Happily though, when it did, I was treated to Carola playing through some fantastic Harman/Kardon speakers. Out of all the things Polestar stole from Volvo, the sound quality is my favorite. Aside from that inconvenience, everything worked well enough. The screen is clear, bright, and large while not being overbearing.

The drivers’ cluster is a bit more similar to Volvo than the center screen, but I’m okay with that. It is easy to control from the steering wheel, it has a great full-screen map feature, and is fully customizable to show you whatever info you would like to know. The seats, on top of being super comfortable, are heated (along with the rear seats and steering wheel) and are electronically controlled. You also get radar-guided cruise control, a full 360-degree backup camera that you will need, blind spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert, auto braking, Wi-Fi connectivity, a wireless charger, and USB-C ports. Overall, the interior and the toys inside of it are a huge part of what makes this car so much better than its competition.

The Polestar 2 comes with either a single motor or dual motor options. The model I drove, the dual motor, makes 408hp and 487lb of torque and sends that power to all four wheels via a one-speed “transmission.” This model did not have the available performance package, which offers bigger wheels, better brakes, and a tuned suspension; and while I am sure that would make the car better to drive, I don’t see a need. This car drives so well. It is the perfect balance of head-to-headrest performance and luxury car comfort. 0-60 happens in 4.67 seconds and the car is limited to 118mph. I see people complain about this top-speed limiter, but I can say that you don’t need 118mph to have fun in one of these. This car has some of the most precise steering input that I have felt in a car in a long time. Even in light steering mode, this car takes no time to react to your inputs. That being said, all the steering variations felt like marginally different versions of heavy, which is fine, but it would have been nicer if there was a “super-duper light” mode. Like the Volvo C40 I drove a couple months back, the 2 has really stiff brakes regardless if you have regenerative braking on. I have grown custom to this now but it still throws you off how much this car wants to do the braking rather than you. Along with the brakes being more firm than I expected, I was also off-put by the lack of rear visibility. On the outside, the rear window looks large and easy to see out of, but whether it’s the rear seats or some weird portion of the roof design, it was very difficult to see what was behind you.

With the dual motor option, the Polestar 2 has a range of 250 miles. Again, Volvo is known to underestimate their range so yours may differ from the EPA suggested numbers. This is down twenty miles from the single motor, however. Charging time takes 30 minutes to get from 10-80% on a DC fast charger, and takes roughly 8 hours on a home charger. Polestar has an internal setting to slow, or even stop, your car from charging over 90% to help save your battery from wear but can be turned off if need be.

I am extremely impressed by this car. Seriously, I am. I know my biases come into play when looking at Volvos and Polestars, but my expectations were both met and exceeded in almost every category. Yes, a Tesla might have slightly better range and do the 0-60 sprint quicker, but in this thing, you won’t get the Tesla baggage that comes along with owning one. You can be mildly inconspicuous in the 2 when you want to be, but show up to a Cars & Coffee event and get just as many pictures as a 360 Modena. Its a jack of all trades, and while no car is a master of all, this one is pretty damn close. So, as I closed the door of the Polestar 2, walked back into the dealership, and set the key down on the table, all I could think to myself as I looked back towards my thunder grey chariot was det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej.

Huge, and I mean HUGE thank you to Claron from Koons Volvo Whitemarsh for letting me come down on such short notice. I love this dealership and the people who work there from the bottom of my heart and they are so much fun to work with. As of writing this, the Polestar 2 is still for sale on their website. But, if you’re looking for something with a Volvo badge, they have you covered as well. Click here to view their website.