30 Days with my Polestar 2

On March 31, I purchased a 2021 Polestar 2. As I approach 30 days with it, here are some of my thoughts and comments.

Driving

So far I’ve put over 1,000 miles on my Polestar 2. That may not seem like a lot, but is about double what I usually drive. In the year I owned my Ioniq I only put about 6,000 miles on it, which was an increase from how much I drove my Corolla. The Polestar 2 has taken things to a whole new level! I love driving it so much that I’ve been taking it everywhere! I had a stretch at the beginning where I drove it for seven days straight, sometimes just going out for a random drive in the evening.

I probably won’t keep up the pace of 1,000 miles a month, but I guess we will see. I am taking it on more road trips since it does have more range the Ioniq. Plus the Polestar has built-in navigation, which the Ioniq did not have. It is much easier to do road trips when the navigation can route you to chargers when needed. Plus, the Polestar 2 charges much more quickly than the Ioniq EV.

In fact, I recently went to a EV car show in Salem, Massachusetts¹ and have signed up to display my car in May at an EV show in Tamworth, New Hamphire. So I guess road trips will continue.

On one of my first road trips, I got to do a little “race” against a Tesla Model S on the Turnpike on-ramp. The S was behind me and we both approached the two EZ-Pass lanes at about the same time. Once we got through, we both accelerated quickly on the ramp towards the mostly empty highway.

I could tell the S driver was not used to having another car keep up with them. I did pull ahead at the end and I got a little wave from them and I waved back. I was certainly grinning and I think they were as well. Once we got on the highway, they took off like a bandit, though.

I have not yet gotten used to that acceleration and I hope I never do! It brings a smile to my face every time I get to use it. Of course, I have to be careful when passengers are in the car. They need to be warned first or I might have a “clean up on aisle 1” situation.

I’ve been thinking of getting a vanity plate with Snabb on it. That is Swedish for “fast”, but I find it appealing since is also sounds like “snob” and “Saab”. What do you think? Leave a comment if you have a fun vanity plate!

My wife has complained a couple times that I’ve accelerated too quickly, but in those cases I felt I barely used the accelerator. She’s yet to witness the “firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station car”² and perhaps never wants to!

Efficiency and Charging

Because I’m me, I have a spreadsheet with driving data. So far I have 12 trips logged, totaling 890 miles.

Up to now all my road trips have been driving around Maine with the longest trip being about 260 miles in one day. Of the road trips I’ve tracked, the average has been about 75 miles.

I’ll write about the efficiency in more detail in another post, but I’m seeing numbers ranging from 2.7mi/kWh to 3.3mi/kWh (37kW/100mi to 30kW/100mi). Those equate to a maximum range of about 201 to 250 miles, which seems to match expectations for spring temperatures of about 38F to 65F.

I’ve charged at several DC fast chargers without issue and even reached its 150kW maximum rate at a Tesla Magic Dock. Most of the time I just charge at home using my ChargePoint Home Flex.

Comments from Others

I’ve had so many positive comments on the car from friends and family. Without fail, everyone remarks on its incredible styling and the color, which vacillates between gray and blue-gray depending on how sunny it is.

On a drive with my wife, I was passing a car on the highway and the driver we passed stared at us as we went by. My wife said, “what was up with that?” I replied “they were either checking you out or the car, both of which are absolutely gorgeous!”

Everyone also really liked the interior. The center console has been a complaint for some tall people, but none ragged on the poor cupholder situation. Back seat passengers have complained about the small door opening and having to duck down further than they expected. They also have said the ride is a bit firm back there. I have yet to ride in the back seat.

In fact, I’ve only had one other person drive the Polestar 2 so far. My brother-in-law had recently looked at a Tesla Model 3, so I let him drive the Polestar 2 to compare. He seemed to really like it. His two tall teenage sons were in the back and did not complain about being cramped, although they are also far too polite to complain even if they were uncomfortable.

Notably, not a single person has liked the blinker sound. Most seem revolted by it, actually.

Raves

The headlights are so bright. Compared to the weak halogens in the Ioniq, the ones on the Polestar turn night into day. I also really like the “bending” feature that brightens the side up when taking corners.

From what I understand the vaunted Pixel headlights are not enabled in the US, even though they are installed in the car, so I haven’t been able to see them in action. Of course they are part of the high-beam system and I’ve not yet driven anywhere that has needed high-beams.

I’ve had friends tell me that Tesla Model 3 is getting an update this spring to enable adaptive headlights that sure sound a lot like the Pixel headlights in the Polestar 2. Surely, if Tesla can enable such a feature, then Polestar can also enable their own Pixel lights, regulations be damned!

I’ve already written an entire post about the audio system, but it bears repeating: it is great! I’ve sat in the car in the garage just to listen to music in it. It has a wonderful, balanced sound that I really appreciate. I especially like it with Apple Music via CarPlay, but it also sounds surprisingly good with SiriusXM.

Seat comfort is another positive. I love the adjustability and the lumbar support. The seat extender is also quite comfortable.

I find the infotainment easy to use and responsive and passengers like how it is easy for them to use as well. Some infotainment systems are focused on the driver and have a bad angle the passenger. I love having the map showing in the driver console.

The 360 camera also evokes exclamations from passengers because it looks impossibly cool. I’ve found it incredibly useful when parking in tight spots and in my garage.

Since I’m a nerd, I’d really like to get more stats out of the car, but perhaps I can make my own app for that. Speaking of which, I did install the Polestar 2 VM in an emulator³ so I could try making an app for it, using either Android Studio or, preferably, Xojo. I’ll likely just stick with “parked” apps, but I still need to do more research to see what API options there are (if any) to get specific data from the car. Personally, I’d love an app that just shows the efficiency as mi/kWh!

Issues

When I first got the car I did a full system reset as recommended in the manual. On the next drive I got TPMS warnings on the highway. After I properly adjusted all the tire pressures (when the tires were cold) and stored the pressures, the warning went away and I’ve not seen it again.

I also saw a low coolant message a couple times after rapidly decelerating down a highway offramp. I checked the coolant and it was at the “minimum” level. I bought a bottle of coolant⁴ and added a slight amount to the overflow container and the warning has not occurred again.

The biggest issue I’ve had is that I cannot get the Polestar app to connect to my car. This is my biggest frustration as I’d really like to have the app so I can verify I actually locked it and then lock it if I forgot. I’m not likely to have forgotten of course, but I do tend to needlessly worry about it.

And without the app working, I also can’t even try to get the phone as a key (PAK) working, but I don’t care much about that.

I have contacted Polestar support and while they’ve been friendly, they’ve not really been helpful. Right now their suggestion is to take it to a Polestar Space to get my software updated from 3.1.9 to 3.4.4. I’ll be writing more about the app issues I’ve been having in another post.

Circling back to the cupholders, I solved it for myself by just getting a small metal water bottle that I keep in the driver door pocket, my preferred place. I was able to find one that fit perfectly at Target.

Summary

Overall, it’s been a wonderful first 30 days!

If you’re looking to get yourself a used Polestar 2, be sure to check out my Buying Guide, which will also soon be available as a PDF and ePub ebook.

1. Write-up coming soon!

2. Obligatory Return of the Jedi quote.

3. Unfortunately this VM requires x86 so won’t run on my Mac. The more generic Android Automotive VM does work on Macs, though.

4. Zerex G48.