Saw my first Polestar on the road

[AustinDriver]

I've heard about Polestar, but when I went to the web page, I was taken aback at how ugly the cars looked. They did nothing for me.

I was out in California over Thanksgiving and actually saw one on the road. And then later the same day I stumbled upon a Tesla-style showroom in a mall in Northern California. WOW - the cars look SO MUCH BETTER IN PERSON. They look like aggressive BMWs, nothing like the nerdy box cars on the webpage.

Has anyone else seen a Polestar in person and had the same reaction? And has anyone actually driven one and can comment on their performance?

 

[ElectricIAC]

I can tell you they’re as thirsty as our MX and the several examples I’ve driven had severe issues with DCFC (would peak at 41KW)

Other than that, nice looking car and nice materials. A lot of nannies while driving though unlike Tesla.

 

[Gold Coaster]

I've heard about Polestar, but when I went to the web page, I was taken aback at how ugly the cars looked. They did nothing for me.

I was out in California over Thanksgiving and actually saw one on the road. And then later the same day I stumbled upon a Tesla-style showroom in a mall in Northern California. WOW - the cars look SO MUCH BETTER IN PERSON. They look like aggressive BMWs, nothing like the nerdy box cars on the webpage.

Has anyone else seen a Polestar in person and had the same reaction? And has anyone actually driven one and can comment on their performance?

We can only order them sight unseen from the web as no showrooms yet in Australia so great to hear they look better in real life then in the photos. I wanted to compare the build quality to Tesla S, Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT as they all have more acceleration then we need need so its more on build quality, range and depreciation I am interested to find out more. I am actually interested to evaluate the Polestar 3 that is coming next year than the Polestar 2 but my other question or concern is that buying an expensive 100KW Lithium battery car is a massive depreciation risk if in 3-4 years the solid state batteries turn them into worthless dinosaurs (like our old NIMH phones) and is it better to go for a middle price range EV like a Tesla 3 or Polestar 2 or KIA EV6 GT at this stage?

 

[tm1v2]

I think if massive depreciation on a given car purchase would really hurt financially, better to buy something cheaper where it won't hurt so much. That applies to any car, EV or ICE. The current car shortage propping up used car prices won't last forever, we'll get back to typical car depreciation at some point and used car prices will drop like a rock. (Aside from truly limited collectibles but that's not what we're talking about here.)

 

[ay221]

Yeah I would go for a model 3 for the time being. Wait some years maybe solid state will come out, then move to that. Which ever makes the best car for the price at that time.

 

[manitou820]

I started leasing a Polestar in October and so did my father. They are really nice cars with great handling. Acceleration is between a Model 3 LR and the performance (based on Car and Driver testing) but in my opinion it feels higher quality. The range isn’t as good, but it’s a legitimate low 200 mile car. Fast charging is decent with peak rates around 150kW. A Model 3 would be a better road trip EV because of the range and network, but the Polestar is our second EV so it’s not a concern for me personally. I really like the Google operating system. Very intuitive and it even has an App Store. So for example I was able to install the “A Better Route Planner” app directly on the car. Google maps is the on board navigation.

Lease rates were about the same as the Model 3. I would argue it’s closer to a Model Y in some aspects like the higher ride height and the hatch back instead of a trunk. I ordered a preconfigured vehicle from their website, filled out the lease app online, and they delivered it to my house. Pretty easy. It also comes with three years free charging at Electrify America.

 

[tm1v2]

Glad to hear you and your dad are both enjoying Polestars @manitou820! We came really close to getting one this fall. Had an order in place, a car assigned, etc. We backed out in favor of a 2nd Tesla due to overall charging situation, and the range difference, but I really liked the Polestar 2 with Performance package. M3P is fun too of course.

 

[manitou820]

Glad to hear you and your dad are both enjoying Polestars @manitou820! We came really close to getting one this fall. Had an order in place, a car assigned, etc. We backed out in favor of a 2nd Tesla due to overall charging situation, and the range difference, but I really liked the Polestar 2 with Performance package. M3P is fun too of course.

We looked at an ID.4, Mach-E, Model Y, and the Polestar. We wanted a hatch back and so the Model 3 wasn't considered. After considering prices, options, specs, and availability it came down to the Model Y and Polestar. I liked the handling of the Polestar a little more, it was 6 months+ for the Model Y, and the Model Y lease was about $100 more per month. So we ended up with the Polestar.

 

[meomyo]

Watch Polestar’s Design Head Explain What Makes the Precept Concept So Special

It "sees" with an advanced LiDAR sensor, for one thing.

www.thedrive.com

 

[meomyo]

We looked at an ID.4, Mach-E, Model Y, and the Polestar. We wanted a hatch back and so the Model 3 wasn't considered. After considering prices, options, specs, and availability it came down to the Model Y and Polestar. I liked the handling of the Polestar a little more, it was 6 months+ for the Model Y, and the Model Y lease was about $100 more per month. So we ended up with the Polestar.

wow you are in colorado...are you driving it around here somewhere? what was the cost?

 

[meomyo]

I started leasing a Polestar in October and so did my father. They are really nice cars with great handling. Acceleration is between a Model 3 LR and the performance (based on Car and Driver testing) but in my opinion it feels higher quality. The range isn’t as good, but it’s a legitimate low 200 mile car. Fast charging is decent with peak rates around 150kW. A Model 3 would be a better road trip EV because of the range and network, but the Polestar is our second EV so it’s not a concern for me personally. I really like the Google operating system. Very intuitive and it even has an App Store. So for example I was able to install the “A Better Route Planner” app directly on the car. Google maps is the on board navigation.

Lease rates were about the same as the Model 3. I would argue it’s closer to a Model Y in some aspects like the higher ride height and the hatch back instead of a trunk. I ordered a preconfigured vehicle from their website, filled out the lease app online, and they delivered it to my house. Pretty easy. It also comes with three years free charging at Electrify America.

which model polestar and where can i test one?

 

[manitou820]

wow you are in colorado...are you driving it around here somewhere? what was the cost?

Polestar 2.

They have a showroom in Denver where you can test drive cars.

I'm paying about $600 a month, for a 36 month lease, $1500 down, 10k miles per year for a fully loaded model.

 

[Eclectic]

I saw one when I was back in California a while ago and thought "that's a nice looking Kia" until I saw it wasn't a Kia. It's still a nice looking car, and Kias are no longer the joke they used to be, but my first impression stuck.

 

[sjg98]

@manitou820 How is the Polestar's PilotAssist or whatever they call the highway driver assistance stuff?

 

[ElectricIAC]

@manitou820 How is the Polestar's PilotAssist or whatever they call the highway driver assistance stuff?

In my experience it was worse than basic autopilot, only it didn’t really phantom brake.

 

[sjg98]

@ElectricIAC Thanks
It's been interesting watching some of the YouTube clips of various competitors on-highway performance at least.

So far it seems like Ford's Bluecruise in the Mustang Mach-E is the closest competitor. Polestar/Volvo PilotAssist looks decent, and sadly Porsche Innodrive kind of braindead. Early reviews of Rivian seems it can't even lane keep properly yet..

As a 2018 EAP buyer (and then FSD upgrader) I have always had a mix of what are now AP+FSD features.
Realistically I just use the AP features on the highway with stalk-confirmation lane change, dealing with the ramps&interchanges myself... so I am not looking for a lot feature wise.

 

[SteelClouds]

Its funny.. The Polestar 2 and the Model 3 were my two choices and it took a few days to make up my mind. I ended up taking the M3 for one reason really. Ease of getting it repaired in the case of an accident. There some 200K+ M3s out there and parts are relatively easy to get. Thats not the case for a brand new car make/model of car like the Polestar 2. Keep in mind this was just looking on line. When I saw one the other day, I decided I had made the right choice since it appears to be smaller than I thought it would be. Now, the Pole Star 1.. different conversation.. Gorgeous car and out of my price range

 

[tm1v2]

@manitou820 How is the Polestar's PilotAssist or whatever they call the highway driver assistance stuff?

I tested Polestar 2 ACC for a couple minutes on one of my test drives. It was very smooth, handled cars in front slowing down, speeding up, merging in, and merging out very well. Smoother than vision-only TACC in my Model 3. Distance keeping was good, it felt consistent in terms of time behind the car in front. I wasn't able to test stop-and-go though. As I understand it, Polestar 2 ACC will turn off automatically after being stopped for a few seconds, then you need to press 1 steering wheel button to resume it when traffic starts moving again.

Compared to current state of vision-only TACC in my new Model 3, I would say the Polestar 2 ACC is better based on my limited testing. TACC on my Model 3 is not smooth and not consistent about following times. It works but it's not a smooth experience.

Compared to radar-based TACC in loaner Model S cars, I would say that AP2 TACC with radar is better overall these days (not when it first launched!), especially for stop-and-go. Though it's more aggressive than Polestar 2 ACC, but at least generally consistent and decently smooth, unlike vision-only TACC.

I didn't test autosteering in the Polestar at all, I don't usually care for autosteer. These days Tesla AP2 autosteer is pretty good though, I would guess better than Polestar 2 autosteer but that's just a guess. (AP1 and AP2 autosteer were both terrible and tried to kill me in their early days.)


Edit: I only tested on a divided highway. I know some people use ACC/TACC on non-divided roads e.g. straight country roads, I don't have experience using it on those roads and while I do drive on such roads, they weren't reachable for my Polestar 2 test drive.

 

[manitou820]

@manitou820 How is the Polestar's PilotAssist or whatever they call the highway driver assistance stuff?

On the highway it's nearly as good as basic autopilot. I haven't tried it in a construction zone or around sharper curves, but it handles typical sweeping highway curves, stop and go traffic, and lane centering really well. It's also easy to use.

 

[ElectricIAC]

One plus about their PilotAssist is that it does at least allow +10 on undivided highways.