Quick Drive: 2022 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor (car review)

IT’S the first ever battery electric vehicle from Swedish car maker Polestar. The 2022 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor model is the brand’s hero coupe-styled fastback, delivering 300kW of power and 660Nm of torque.

Throw in the fact that it’s also the only all-wheel drive variant, and has the best top speed (205km/h) and a sprint to 100km/h of 4.7 seconds (claimed), and it’s hard not to like what’s on offer.

We managed it in 4.49 and have to say, it will pin you in the seat from a standing start. Impressive stuff from the new kid on the block, which is a joint venture between Volvo and Chinese carmaker Geely.

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The latter incidentally owns both Volvo and Polestar, as well as Lotus and Lynk & Co (who are also headed down under). It has a claimed range of up to 480km, and we reckon it can achieve it, or go damn close.

With everything operating in normal mode, including regenerative braking (that puts charge back in the battery as you drive it), we had an estimated range of 402km, with 100 per cent charge. But of course, you’re adding distance back into the car, all the time.

On road manners are exceptional, even when the Polestar 2 is being driven hard and pushed through corners. This is particularly so in Sport mode, where traction control is turned off by default. It just wants to stick to the road like glue.

If we had to describe what that actually feels like, think of it as driving on rails, like a train or a roller coaster, without the bumps as you enter the bends. And despite our best efforts, we struggled to burn through battery, such is the recharging technology on board.

At a time when the world is in the middle of dealing with climate change, and people are critical of the evolution of EVs, Polestar has done everything it can to make its cars, including the Polestar 2, as environmentally friendly as possible.

For example, the cobalt used in their batteries is responsibly mined, while the interior is entirely vegan, meaning zero animal products were used. Recycled materials have been used in interior textiles, trim panels and other components.

It’s a technological masterpiece too, with full native Google integration, bucket loads of safety goodies, one pedal driving, and no start button. Thanks to the cool digital key technology, you simply put it in gear and drive away.

Well that’s the plan anyway. Unless you live on an angled driveway. Then the automatic collision braking system will flip out as you coast at low speed towards the road, not once but multiple times. We couldn’t find a way to disable that but fingers crossed there is one.

The Polestar 2 borrows heavily from ‘parent’ brand Volvo in the safety department, utilising its advanced driver assistance system that delivers lane departure and lane keep assist, driver attention monitoring, and pre-collision systems, that are mostly user friendly.

It also has eight airbags and steering intervention, as well as a forward facing camera that detects other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians, even at night. There’s more of that technological goodness that we mentioned, inside too.

The 11.15-inch infotainment system is simple, easy to use and features DAB+ digital radio, an excellent navigation system, and all the standard connectivity capabilities, including Bluetooth. It’s powered by Android, and there’s four USB-C connections.

There’s two cup holders in the rear drop down arm rest and what appears to be one in the front. That is until you open the central storage bin, where you’ll find the second cup holder. This does mean there’s bugger all actual storage there. Thank God for door pockets.

The digital instrument cluster is 12.3-inches and among the sharpest and clearest we’ve seen. There’s loads of display options you can choose from to put on the screen, including navigation (which is the default). You won’t find a head-up display though.

The interior centre-piece though is a hexagonal shaped gear selector with an illuminated Polestar logo. The push button park brake resides next to it and there’s simply drive, neutral and reverse to choose from. There’s a lot to love about this EV, that’s for sure.

But no car is perfect, and nor is the 2022 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor. We found that some of those textiles marked very easily though, and reckon you’ll find yourself stashing a pack of baby wipes in the glove to wipe things clean all the time.

We already mentioned our issue with the sloped driveway at the office, and while the concept of Google being embedded in the car sounds great, and we have a very new Android device, it was not without its quirks.

The car pumped out tunes epically well, showed us messages and even told us when the phone wasn’t charging properly in the wireless phone charger, but using voice recognition to try and call someone was a bit of a fail.

Our only other real beef comes with the territory in terms of sloping roof, fastback type designs, which sees great rear leg room, but rubbish head room. At 183cm, this writer found his head literally pressed against the roof lining when sitting normally.

Out of the box, the 2022 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor variant is priced at $69,900 plus on-roads. Throw the packs in on top though and you add another $19,000 – with the Pilot, Plus and Performance packages priced at $5,000, $6,000 and $8000 respectively.

The Plus Pack includes high-level premium equipment like the full-length panoramic glass roof, premium Harman Kardon audio system with 13 speakers, WeaveTech upholstery, Black Ash deco panels, and fully-electric heated front seats with memory.

It also adds heated rear seats, steering wheel and wiper blades, and a heat pump. The heat pump reduces the need to use valuable battery capacity to prepare and sustain the cabin climate.

It capitalises ambient heat, as well as residual thermal energy from the drivetrain, to reduce climatisation load by as much as 50 per cent.

The Pilot Pack includes enhanced safety and driver assistance features, such as Pixel LED headlights with LED front fog lights, driver assistance with adaptive cruise control and Pilot Assist, a 360-degree surround view camera, and all-round parking sensors.

This feature alone is worth the price of admission on this package, making it exceptionally easy to park the Polestar 2, even in tight spaces, like shopping centre car packs. You also get driver awareness, including blind spot information with steering support.

In addition, this back includes cross traffic alert with brake support, and rear collision warning (that thing we don’t like). The final offering, the Performance Pack, is only available on this variant.

It adds adjustable Öhlins dual flow valve dampers, four-piston gold Brembo front brake callipers, with matching gold seat belts and tyre valve caps, 20-inch forged alloy wheels and bespoke Continental SportContact 6 tyres.

The 2022 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor is available in six exterior colours, including Snow, Thunder (as tested), Magnesium, Midnight, Moon and Void. There are three wheel and tyre packages, and four interior trim colours.

These include Charcoal, Slate, Zinc and Barley. You can also choose from textile, WeaveTech (as tested), and Nappa leather, in terms of upholstery. It has a maximum braked towing capacity of 1,500kg, which is impressive for an EV fastback.

The front storage compartment holds around 40-litres of stuff (and is the perfect place to store your home charging cable if you don’t have a wall box). There’s 405-litres of boot with the seats up, and 1,095-litres with them laid flat.

It has a 5-year unlimited kilometre warranty, along with 5-years roadside assist, and a 5-year or 100,000km complimentary service plan. The battery warranty is 8-years or 160,000km. Polestar expects the batteries to last for the life of the vehicle.

Our test vehicle was provided by Polestar Australia as part of a 24-hour pre-launch drive program. Pre-orders for the Polestar 2 will open at the end of the year, with customer test drives available in January. More information is available from Polestar’s website.