Polestar 2 2023 review: Long range Single motor - long-term | Part 2

This month, the Polestar 2 has been put to work on some longer trips, a great opportunity to test its range claim, and see how it is affected by the freeway.

The thing is, while many electric cars might have seemingly-decent official range claims, the reality can be starkly different on the open road.

Without a large percentage of the distance being travelled under regenerative braking (as your electric car would in stop-start traffic), the car’s efficiency can nosedive on the freeway, and so can its range.

We’re not talking a handful of kilometres, either, some can drop by up to a third of estimated range capacity once you’re freeway bound.

My concern was it's already quite difficult to hit the Polestar 2’s range claim. Whilst I’ve been able to exceed the range claim of some of its rivals (the Hyundai Kona being the prime example, which I found could travel nearly 510km on a 480km claim), the Polestar most weeks is reporting 490km of range on a full charge (with worse weeks having a 100 per cent charge reporting 470km, and better weeks reporting 500km. Still short of the 515km sticker-range).

Faced with a roughly 600km return trip to Canberra from Sydney, it was a perfect opportunity to run some numbers and find out if the Polestar would disappoint or pleasantly surprise.

The car was starting from a good base. My first month delivered an impressive efficiency result - 15.9kWh/100km, which was making it, thus far, more efficient than the official claim which is 17.1kWh/100km.

This month, the Polestar 2 has been put to work on some longer trips. (Image: Tom White)

Weird how the computer thinks I can’t get the full 515km range claim on a full charge. I agree, but generally leave the air conditioning on, so that might take the top off a little.

I set off with an 80 per cent charge, which was good for around 400km according to the computer at the time.

A clever feature I appreciate every time I drive this car is how its Google navigation system automatically factors in the car’s estimated range when you plug in a destination and offers up charging options if it thinks you won’t make it on a single charge.

I figured I should be able to make it to Canberra, but just in case I plugged in a charging station some 150km from Sydney, I could do with a coffee at that point anyway.

The Polestar most weeks is reporting 490km of range on a full charge. (Image: Tom White)

Before we go on with our range odyssey, I should talk about how the Polestar handles itself on the freeway. Read my impressions on how it is to drive around town in chapter one of this review (spoilers: I like it a lot), and on the freeway it's a very pleasing car to drive, too.

The weird recycled trim the seats are covered in remains comfortable over longer distances, and the steering is weighted nicely so you don’t get much fatigue holding the wheel.

The adaptive cruise suite is one of the better ones. While not quite as robotic and advanced as the so-called ‘Autopilot’ system in its direct Tesla Model 3 rival, the system seems to be pretty good at keeping distance and keeping the car in the lane.

As for speed management, it was interesting to see the difference between this and the Kia EV6 I lived with long-term recently.

The Polestar 2's Google navigation system offers up charging options. (Image: Tom White)

While the Kia was clever, using regenerative braking on hills to keep the car sticking to exactly the set speed, sometimes on steeper declines the Polestar needed additional brake action. Surely we can be more clever than this, yes?

Still, it’s a mild complaint, and this set-up is arguably a lot better than some of the more invasive safety and cruise suites cursing manufacturers which should know better.

Another interesting take-away from my experience driving the Polestar at higher speeds is the amount of reserve power available from its motor.

While power figures are close to the Cupra Born, the Polestar has plenty more punch to go once you’re past 100km/h.

Sometimes on steeper declines the Polestar needed additional brake action. (Image: Tom White)

The Born, meanwhile, seems to lose the wind behind its sails. I don’t know whether this is to do with the gearing of the single-speed transmission, or something internal with the motor itself, but it’s worth noting you won’t be left wanting in an overtaking manoeuvre in the Polestar.

So, power is plentiful (but not overwhelming), comfort is decent, and the cruise system is good. This brings us to our main let-down, and that’s road noise.

The Polestar 2 is noisy. Big wheels, sporty tyres, and stiff suspension conspire to make freeway journeys comparatively harsh.

It’s not uncomfortable, and if you owned this car you would probably get used to it, but it’s worth noting because many of this car’s electric rivals have done more to combat road noise, which is increasingly noticeable once a combustion engine is taken out of the equation. The Kia EV6, for example, is much quieter.

Big wheels, sporty tyres, and stiff suspension conspire to make freeway journeys comparatively harsh. (Image: Tom White)

It’s a trade-off, after all. If you want the pointed, direct chassis and over-competent tyres which make this car such a pleasure to drive, something has to give.

Alternatively, the price goes up to solve the problem, as is the case in the BMW i4. It will be curious to see what the incoming and heavily updated rear-drive Polestar 2 will have tweaked to address this issue.

Back to our range test. Stop one, at 150.9km, has four Evie-branded chargers, two more than last time I came through here.

One is occupied by a Nissan Leaf, the other, for whatever reason won’t talk to my Polestar, but the other two cooperated.

Power is plentiful (but not overwhelming), comfort is decent, and the cruise system is good. (Image: Tom White)

As soon as I was plugged in and set up, the charger bounced to 101kW (short of the car’s official 150kW maximum rate, but a variety of factors, including the single-digit ambient temperature may have affected this), and a BYD Atto 3 pulled up to charge at the remaining working unit.

Pleased with the variety of cars on offer (too often, you only see Model 3s), I sat down with a coffee to read some emails.

I think people overstate how long charging times are for electric vehicles. For one, I didn’t need a full charge, or even an 80 per cent charge for the remainder of my journey, with the car still having 45 per cent range remaining,

I was here purely as a convenience exercise, and 20 minutes later, with 70-something per cent back on the dash, I set off for the second half of my journey.

The Polestar 2 was charged once during its 600km return trip to Canberra from Sydney. (Image: Tom White)

I arrived with plenty of range to spare, roughly 200km with the efficiency having jumped on the uphill journey to around 17.8kWh/100km.

This represents a loss of around 80-100km for the total over a 300km journey. It’s not as accurate as the Kia Niro or Kia EV6, which I found generally fell within 40km of their range claim on equally distant runs, although it was on a freeway and on a consistent uphill grade, which affects the result significantly.

This steady gradient made the return run much easier. In fact, I didn’t have to charge the Polestar at all on the return journey.

An 85 per cent charge and a predicted 380km range before I set off from Canberra leaving me with 26 per cent and 110km remaining when I arrived back home in Sydney, a gain of 30km on the original projection.

Next month: The car is due a software update which brings new features to its multimedia system and digital dash. (Image: Tom White)

Consumption for the return journey had come down to 16.2kWh/100km. Still above my stop-start traffic number, but much improved on the uphill freeway run.

This journey has thrown out my total number for the month slightly, which has risen to 16.3kWh from last month’s 15.9kWh/100km.

The car is still reporting 490km of range on a full charge but the key take-away from this chapter is the Polestar 2 is reasonably reliable with its range prediction.

As long as you consider the driving conditions it is faced with, its range is more than sufficient for travelling between Australian capitals with only one or two charging stops.

The Polestar 2 is reasonably reliable with its range prediction. (Image: Tom White)

Next month: The car is due for a software update which brings new features to its multimedia system and digital dash, as well as new ways of predicting range and tracking consumption, and I plan to actually connect the phone app to see how it compares to Tesla’s connected offering. Stay tuned!

Acquired: April 2023

Distance travelled this month: 983km

Odometer: 9800km

Average energy consumption this month: 16.3kWh/100km