Nat Barnes reports back on our Polestar 2 long-termer.

Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor

List price (BiK): £49,160 (3%)  Range: 379 miles   Test range: 335 miles   Claimed efficiency: 3.63mpkWh  Test efficiency: 3.2mpkWh

Report 2:

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It was a bit of a baptism of fire for the Polestar 2.

No sooner had it arrived on my drive, than I was loading it up for a work event in Warwick. With its notchback looks, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the 2 is a hatch rather than a saloon. And, while the lack of a rear wiper is a constant personal bugbear among many of the latest EVs (Hyundai even going so far as adding one later for the 5), the practicality of a hatch will always be my favoured choice.

And with that, it meant the seats were folded down, a long display board together with plenty of other materials were lobbed inside and off I went. I wasn’t challenging its ultimate load capacity, but the board was long and wide and certainly a smaller car may not have coped.

That time at the wheel on the motorway had me plugged in to Apple CarPlay and enjoying the Bowers and Wilkins stereo, but also noticing what I wasn’t noticing.

If that sounds like a weird statement, just bear with me. In my last report, I touched on the infotainment system and the digital driver display. And while many of the latest generation of EVs get carried away with personalised display options and how it looks, it’s one thing you really notice about the Polestar.

White/ light grey and orange highlights on a black background make them really simple to see on the move with a clear, simple layout. It sounds a stupid thing to highlight, but it’s refreshingly simple and you’d be surprised how many other firms get this so wrong. It’s another reason why a fellow journalist agreed with me only recently how well the Polestar 2 has retained its appeal despite its age.

Not that the 2 is perfect mind you. While I love the personalisation options for the drivetrain as outlined in my previous report, there are still a few niggles. I can just about forgive the need to plug in my phone to access Apple CarPlay, but it seems odd that you can’t adapt the trip computer efficiency readout to show mls/kWh only the less commonly used kWh/100mls. It’s a simple enough calculation, but still a frustration.

However, I am a convert for the pre-conditioning. A total game-changer for the recent icy mornings, but also for clearing any condensation on the inside of the windscreen too and warming up the cabin beforehand. The only downside there is the fault of yours truly forgetting to plug it in the night before.

First Report:

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If a week is said to be a long time in politics, then five years is a veritable lifetime in the new car world.

That’s how long it’s been since the Polestar 2 first arrived on UK roads. Five years is still no short amount of time, especially so when some of the newcomer Chinese brands are facelifting their cars after less than two years on occasion.

Thankfully, the Polestar 2 received a nip and tuck of its own with a host of changes earlier this year, largely under the skin, as well as a new standard range 70kWh version to join this 82kWh Long Range model. Included in those changes were an upgraded processor chip for the infotainment and touchscreen and also a new Bowers & Wilkins audio system (an £1800 option also fitted to my car that I’ll be going into more detail in due course).

Those updates have helped to keep the 2 looking fresh though to my eyes, especially when it’s sitting alongside the latest 3 and 4 in those uber-trendy Polestar Spaces retailers. The 2’s slightly squared-off shape might at first feel slightly old school, but I think it’s barely aged at all and still stands out from the crowd in a busy car park (even though you’re now more likely to see other 2s as well). The only items showing their age on the outside are the proud, sticking-out door handles, when many modern EVs have gone for flush electronic versions instead.

That said, there’s no doubting that the 2 is a firm fleet favourite. In those past five years of being on sale, an incredible 80% of all 2s sold have been to fleets and businesses. And the latest spotlight on the brand generally with the new 3 and 4 is probably only likely to keep that strong too.

It’s admittedly been some time since I sat inside a 2, but while the portrait-style central infotainment screen looks basic at first glance compared to some of the latest all-singing-and-dancing offerings, the reality is that it’s refreshingly intuitive. I also love the fact that you can set individual settings not just for the regenerative braking, but also the steering weight and smaller factors like the seat heaters temperatures and whether you want the car to creep like a traditional automatic or tilt the mirrors when reversing. The reality is that most owners are likely to set these to their liking and then leave it, but for me it’s a neat addition – it shows someone has thought about the driver’s needs.

That’s not to say the 2 isn’t without some idiosyncrasies, mind you. The interior lighting wasn’t operating when opening the doors when the car got delivered, but rather oddly it’s not altered via the lighting menu on the screen, but by a roof-mounted button that you have to press and hold. Likewise, the ability to set the pre-conditioning isn’t in the charging menu, but on the heating and ventilation screen, which seems the wrong location to me.

What was also odd was how I solved these problems – via the on-screen digital handbook. Usually I’d rather run across a Lego-strewn floor in bare feet than use a digital handbook, but this one works well and, crucially, has a search function. That small addition has made me a convert. Rather than swearing and cursing as I went through the indexed menus, the search immediately bought up the required page and I could solve the problem. Pay attention other car makers – whoever designed that search button deserves a medal.

We’ll see if any other medals will be handed out over the next six months.