Key considerations
- Available for £19,000
- 402hp dual electric motors, all-wheel drive
- Effortless speed, 230-mile real-world range
- A few non-core electrical issues
- Some sub-optimal cabin mouldings
- Performance Pack ride quality might feel hard
- Whither (or possibly withering) used values?
Today we’re looking at the gen-one Polestar 2, the battery-electric 4-door ‘fastback’ saloon that went on sale in the UK in 2020 to rival Tesla’s 2019-on Model 3. Polestar 2s were made in China, unsurprisingly perhaps given that Polestar was a sub-brand of Volvo Cars, which had been owned by the Chinese multinational Geely since 2010. Shorter and taller than a BMW 3 Series, the P2 was based on the same steel-bottomed CMA platform as the XC40, with the battery packs running across and underneath the rear seat and along what we used to call the transmission tunnel.
You could initially choose from a mix of single-motor front-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel-drive variants, with battery capacities going from 63kWh to 78kWh and motor outputs from 165kW to 350kW (giving power and performance figures of 220hp, 243lb ft, and 0-60mph in 7.2 seconds, and 469hp, 502lb ft, and 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds respectively).
Judging by the number of used ones on sale, the AWD 402hp dual-motors with the 78kWh battery and an official range of just over 300 miles have been the most popular used 2s in the UK, so they’re the ones we’ll be concentrating on in this buying guide.
A refresh in early 2023 for UK sales beginning in the third quarter of that year took the AWD dual-motor car from 402hp to 416hp and from 486lb ft to 546lb ft, reducing its 0-62mph time to 4.5 seconds. The torque split was retuned for extra rearward bias and a front motor decoupling feature was brought in for more efficiency. In addition, a new 82kWh battery pack for Long Range cars added 65 miles to the dual-motor’s official range, taking it to 368 miles.
After that 2023 refresh the long-rangers could charge at up to 205kW, 55kW faster than before. They were priced from £52,950. At this time the single-motor Polestar 2s switched from front- to rear-wheel drive, putting a little extra delicacy into the handling and adding small increases to power, performance, range and price, which went up by £2,800 to £44,950.
The Polestar 2 has had a good takeup in the UK. Year two sales (2022) exceeded the company’s expectations by well over 20 per cent. The overwhelming majority of those sales – four out of five – were to fleets or businesses. Things might be changing, however. Globally, nearly 55,000 Polestar 2s were sold last year (2023), but that figure was down on expectations as a result of some aggressive discounting by Tesla.
Then, in January of this year (2024) Hertz, the largest fleet operator of electric vehicles in the US, announced that it was selling off 20,000 of its EV fleet – which included Teslas and Polestars – due to low customer demand and high repair costs. Hertz attributed that last factor to insufficient expertise in the field of EV repair and delays in obtaining replacement parts.
Although Hertz’s move was described in the US media as ‘a fire sale’, Polestar’s CEO maintained that his cars weren’t part of the selloff, adding that he believed Hertz US was going to go ahead with its plan to buy 65,000 Polestars over the next five years. He would say that, you might be thinking. Still, when a company of Hertz’s size announces such a significant scaling-down of its EV fleet it does make you wonder about the technology and the implications for private motorists, irrespective of the badges on the cars being unloaded. You can bet your insulated boots that Hertz only took its decision after a very detailed analysis. The thing to remember is that they are fleet operators, and that the car rental business model is very different to private ownership.
Anyway, we’re not sure if the sale is in full swing yet but so far there are no signs of Hertz’s EV unload killing prices of used Polestar 2s on the US market. The ones marked as ‘fleet owned’ on classified ads seem to be fetching the same sort of money in the US as privately owned cars. That would appear to show a good level of buyer trust in the core vehicle, although it could also be something as simple as Hertz controlling the sale flow to maintain values.
Whatever, in February 2024 used Polestar 2s in the US started at around $31,000, or around £24.5k. The three most affordable 2s we found for sale in the UK were all 402hp examples with the cheapest one priced at just under £19k. That’s right, £19k for a 402hp dual motor Long Range Plus/Pilot pack car with just under 94,000 miles on the clock. That seems like a lot of car – and a lot of cheap power – for the money. But what sort of ownership experience should you expect from a used Polestar 2? Let’s take a look.
SPECIFICATION | POLESTAR 2 Long Range Dual Motor (2020-on)
Engine: dual electric motors, 300kW
Battery capacity: 78kWh
Transmission: single-speed, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 402
Torque (lb ft): 486
0-62mph (secs): 4.7
Top speed (mph): 127
Weight (kg): 2,113
Range (WLTP): 283-303 (real world 230-ish)
Energy consumption (miles per kWh): 3.1-3.2 (real world 2.9-ish)
Miles per £1 (home/public): 9.1-9.4/4.9-5.1
Wheels (in): 20 (Performance Pack)
Tyres: 245/40 (PP)
On sale: 2020 - now
Price new: £54,550
Price now: from £19,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data is hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
Whether it’s electrically generated or the product of internal combustion, 400hp and 500lb ft is a recipe for big grins even when there’s a two-tonne-plus car to shove along. There’s a specialness about big electronic grunt though, coming from the linearity, smoothness and instant torque. The ability that gives cars like the Polestar 2, especially the dual motor ones, to practically teleport into spaces is what makes them so entertaining and so safe in the cut and thrust of modern motoring. Not just on the open roads, but in towns and cities too where they are an absolute hoot.
Outside of the hypercar world, EVs aren’t really about high top speeds, but for most users the Polestar 2’s maximum of 127mph was ample. So was the dual-motor’s real-world range on mixed roads of around 230 miles (as opposed to the official 300) if you were using a decent percentage of the performance. In that same real world, the Model 3 would probably get slightly more mileage on a full charge than a Polestar but there wasn’t a lot in it. In either car you wouldn’t have to rely too heavily on the public charging infrastructure if you were a private user doing typical sub-50 mile journeys.
Powertrain and range optimisations, enhanced surround sound and increased cruise control efficiency have all been beamed over the air to Polestar 2s, which is great, but one UK-based YT owner found that on 150kW chargers in winter with cold batteries he was more likely to see charging speeds in the 110-120kW range.
Every Polestar 2 came with free, scheduled maintenance for the first three years after delivery, or 31,250 miles, whichever came first. The service included cleaning and it could include pick-up and delivery but that depended on the resources of the service provider. If you wanted to find out more about specific maintenance and service intervals Polestar’s online advice was to refer you to your owner’s book pack, which kind of excluded anyone who didn’t already own a Polestar but who might be thinking about buying one. We believe however that checkover services are every two years, with brake fluid changes every three.
The ‘service points’ carrying out this work were as often as not Volvo dealerships. What do the services actually involve though, given Polestar’s own words about the wondrous simplicity of the electric vehicle? ‘The powertrain of a petrol or diesel car typically contains over 2,000 moving parts, whereas the electric powertrain of a Polestar 2 has around 50,’ they said. ‘Consequently, there’s less need for servicing as, essentially, tyres, wiper blades and the cabin air fliter are the only parts that require regular attention.’
However, at least one owner said that the only things his service point looked at were the tyres and brakes. Another said he was shown ‘red lights’ for air con and brake fluid services on a car that, timewise at least, should have needed neither.
The vehicle warranty was 3 years/60,000 miles and was transferable as long as the service plan had been followed. The battery warranty was the increasingly normal industry standard of 8 years/100,000 miles, with a promise to replace the battery for free if its health dropped below 70 per cent of its original capacity in those first eight years. You also got three years of free roadside assistance, which you could summon by a ‘connect‘ button in the overhead console.
Two recalls have been issued on the Polestar 2. One was to rectify faulty tin plating on the bulk capacitor terminals which could lead to a short circuit. The other had to do with high-voltage contactors coming open which could disconnect the drive. All unfamiliar terms to those of us who are more accustomed to reading repair biills for internal combustion engines. You could tow with a Polestar 2. The maximum braked towing weight was 1,500kg. Naturally there was no VED to pay.
CHASSIS
At over 2.1 tonnes the Polestar 2 was between 300 and 400kg heavier than Tesla’s Model 3, so you could understand its need for heavy-duty springing. Cars with the Performance Pack – a £5,000 option – came with 20-inch wheels, Ohlins dampers, lowered and even stiffer suspension and big Brembo brakes. These were predictably mighty but also overkill when you were getting more or less all the speed-shedding you needed through the regenerative braking system, especially when one-pedal drive was engaged.
The Ohlins shocks were adjustable. That helped to mitigate a ride that could be on the stiff side for British roads. It was particularly noticeable on the press cars which were set up for minimal roll, though even then they were only on the midway settings. Adjusting the Ohlins units wasn’t the work of a moment however, especially at the rear where you had to jack the car up first.
The electric steering was light but lacking in feel or much in the way of self-centring, which could be a freaky phenomenon if your front wheels weren’t pointing in the right direction when you dialled in a chunk of power halfway around a bend. The all-wheel drive was always there for you of course.
The Pilot Pack took care of lane centering as well as adaptive cruising. It wasn’t as good as Tesla’s Autopilot but it allowed you to drive it one-handed for a very long time with minimal stress. Actually you could drive it no-handed, but after a few seconds you were beeped at for being naughty and warned to ‘apply steering’. And don’t buy a high-powered AWD EV like this if you’re the type that doesn’t like buying tyres. There was no standard spare.
BODYWORK
Not everyone was a fan of the Polestar 2’s cliff-face rear end, which was pretty much a design necessity in order to create useable cargo space. Boot capacity wasn’t massive at 405 litres but it was adequate for the average family trip and you could always throw a few soft items in the ‘frunk’ where the engine would normally be. There was also a ski hatch between the rear seats for loading longer items. A pop-up boot divider was standard on dual-motor cars, as was wireless phone charging.
The full-width ‘Knight Rider’ style LED adaptive light blade across the boot lid was potentially Marmite, but from the front the car had a pleasing ‘modern Volvo’ look about it. The lack of word-based marque identifiers on cars has become a bit of a thing nowadays. Apart from a tiny ‘Polestar Engineered’ badge in the grille space and some very understated ‘Polestar 2 Battery Electric Vehicle’ scripts on the lower sections of the front doors, the Polestar badges that artistically represented the North Star were all you got front and rear. These badges have acquired a reputation for yellowing. Obviously, there are plenty of replacement options in the aftermarket.
Moody paint names like Space, Thunder, Midnight, Jupiter, Snow and Magnesium told you that Polestars didn’t come in jolly colours.
INTERIOR
The ‘vegan’ cabin – a jokey term used by Polestar to describe the use of recycled plastics, fishing nets and maybe old wellies for the main mouldings – was a pleasant enough place to be as long as you weren’t too picky about the quality of the materials, many of which seemed not hugely resistant to scuffs and marks. They normally wiped clean OK but the design of the central console was never anything other than poor, which was surprising given Polestar’s closeness to Volvo.
You could pay £4k for ventilated Nappa leather upholstery. This helped to soften the firmness of the seats, but leather could feel incongruous in such a modern environment. On later cars, the default leather colour turned to a darker grey which was more fitting. The Weavetec upholstery that you got in some models was good at retaining heat, reducing the need for energy-burning cabin warmth in European winters, but in hot climates it was a recipe for extreme sweatiness.
Height-wise, the seating position was somewhere between an SUV and a traditional saloon. That and the ‘frameless’ mirrors gave good visibility despite the quite high door card tops. You felt cosy in a Polestar 2, veering towards cramped if you were on the tall side. That was especially true in the back, although the full-length panoramic roof that you got with the Plus Package (along with things like Harman Kardon audio, fully electric seats, and a heat pump for better cold-weather efficiency) did help to ease the feeling of slightly restricted headroom. Performance Pack cars were a little noisier inside than non-PP cars, to the extent that passengers had to crank up their voice volume at speed.
There were no redundant ‘start’ buttons in a Polestar 2. You just got in, selected forward or back and you were off. The digi screen in front of you was clear and intuitive, and the iconography of the large, portrait-oriented touchscreen had a familiar look to it if you used an Android phone. Its sat nav was powered by Google Maps. CarPlay came along in 2021. Look for that, or the absence of it, in the ad spiel on anything you’re thinking of buying.
Although it wasn’t released at the same time as the car, there is now a Polestar smartphone app that remotely activates climate control, sets the climate timers, checks battery status, and locks or unlocks the car. When an authorised driver touches the door handle the app loads their preferred seat, steering feedback, and one-pedal drive settings.
All good so far, but there were early problems with 4G (on which the car was largely reliant for its mapping, Spotify, and YouTube etc input) and wifi, which was patchy. Software fixes didn’t always stick. Polestar service staff were unfailingly polite but they didn’t always have the answers you were hoping for.
PH VERDICT
We haven’t gone into the ‘EVs, no one wants them’ argument here, mainly because there’s a PH thread for that here. If you’re looking for a wide range of views that might help you to form your own opinion on electric vehicles, that’s the place.
Focusing on the Polestar 2, for many the four-door and effectively four-seat design knocked it off the radar straight off the bat. Four out of ten owners have had faults. That sounds bad but these faults were in the main sorted out quickly and easily. The worst problems have been fritzing non-powertrain electricals like the sat nav/infotainment systems. In other words, exactly the same problems that owners of modern internal combustion-engined cars routinely experience. Core reliability of the Polestar 2 has been good and owner satisfaction high.
The 2 wasn’t as energy-efficient as some EVs however, due in part at least to its weight. In real-world economy, there was a difference between dual- and single-motor Polestars – around 2.9 miles per kWh in the dual, maybe 3.7 in the single – but the lower costs of electricity vs fuel might make you think that this disparity is an acceptable tradeoff against the dual-motor’s considerably superior performance. That’s something you’ll appreciate and come to value on a daily basis.
There is as much need for the Performance Pack in a used Polestar 2 as there was in a new one, i.e. not much. In fact, if you’re more interested in simple comfort than in reducing roll around a high-speed corner you might come to the conclusion that the PP represented a negative impact on the overall Polestar experience. The ride quality which was arguably the car’s worst aspect seems to be a cross that heavy electric vehicles like this have to bear.
To be fair the ride wasn’t that great on the Tesla Model 3 either. To be even more fair it’s probably true that many passengers will not even notice it as an issue because it’s not that bad. It’s just that it stands out on an otherwise largely problem-free ownership canvas.
As noted at the beginning, you can pick up a high-mileage, high-power (402hp) Polestar 2 in February 2024 for as little as £19,000. Of the 67 Polestar 2s on PH Classifieds at that time, 47 were the 300kW/402hp dual motors, and three were the later 350kW cars. The most affordable example was this 2020 Pilot and Plus Pack car with 70,000 miles on it for £21,444. There are plenty of dual motors for sale below £30k, the price being determined as you might expect by mileage. Here’s another Pilot/Plus car, an 18,000-miler from 2021, at £26,444. If you really wanted to push the boat out you could have this 1,000-mile 2024 Plus-spec car in Denim Blue, going for £55,850.
A final thought. Hertz US’s decision to dispose of a large part of its EV fleet might seem irrelevant to private buyers in the UK, but when companies of that size take such big decisions we should pay attention because a) that sort of offload is bound to impact used values at some point, and b) they might know something we don’t. It could be that Hertz will revisit EVs when the new breed of batteries comes on stream, but again, where would that leave today’s Polestar 2s?
So, if you’d prefer to hire new rather than buy used, in February 2024 Polestar was offering 4-year PCH deals on its standard single-motor cars for just under £7k down and 47 monthly rental payments of £581, plus around 14p (inc VAT) for every mile over the 10,000 annual allowance. £19k for your very own 402hp Polestar 2 though. Makes you think.
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