There's a tendency among car makers, especially makers of posh cars, to complicate things. To throw at them technology and features - some of which you will never use - to wow you.
This, the Polestar 2, from a company part-owned by Volvo, is refreshingly simpler than that.
The 2, Polestar's second car after the wild plug-in hybrid 1, is a pure EV. This one is with us as my daily wheels until the middle of the year.
It's 4.6m long and 1.8m wide across the body, with a five-seat interior and a 78kWh (usable) battery pack beneath it. There's four-wheel drive, from two powerful permanent-magnet synchronous motors, each making the same output. There's one at either axle, so it makes a total of 402bhp and 487lb ft.
At that size and pace, I suppose you would call it a sporting family hatch or a quick compact executive car, with a 4.7sec 0-62mph time. The top speed is 'only' 127mph, but I don't suppose I will ever trouble that.
The 2's base price is £49,900, but this one has a couple of options: metallic paint, which doesn't look overly metallised but which I do rather like, at £900; and the £5000 Performance Pack. That adds 20in rather than 19in wheels, larger front brake discs with four-piston calipers, Öhlins manually adjustable dampers and gold-painted brake calipers and valve caps.
This story is from the January 12, 2022 edition of Autocar UK.
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This story is from the January 12, 2022 edition of Autocar UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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