Polestar 2 revealed to shake up status quo – is this the BMW 3-series of the future?

The long-awaited all-electric Polestar 2 is finally out, and it’s here to make electric cars cool

This is the new Polestar 2. An all-electric, compact executive sized mainstream model from the Swedish performance off-shoot from Volvo. Polestar wants the 2 not only to rival the incoming Tesla Model 3, but also to disrupt the current compact executive class status quo. With a projected starting price at under $53,000 and an estimated range of over 480 kilometres, the Polestar 2 has the numbers to back-up these lofty ambitions. 

Now, more important numbers. The Polestar 2 is powered by two electric motors fed from a 76kWh lithuim-ion battery pack that helps achieve the projected 500-kilometre range figure. Power stands at 402bhp, with a chunky 457lb ft of torque available right from the off, as per most electric motors. Polestar quotes a 0-100kph time of under 5sec. With such a large battery pack and tall-ish ride height, we suspect the as yet unconfirmed weight figure to be a hefty number.

The Polestar 2 sits on Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture, the one that also underpins the Volvo XC40 SUV and will soon spread to more Polestar and Volvo models that sit below those based on the larger SPA platform – like the Volvo S90and V90. With Polestar’s positioning as the electric and performance brand within Volvo owner Geely’s stable, we hope that a sense of fun has been engineered into the Polestar 2 package. Even if the car’s slightly odd semi-lifted ride height suggests this might not be the case.

This new Polestar 2 is also about design, user interface and technology, as much as it is about its electric performance and capability though, and on these fronts the manufacturer has not held back. We’ll let you assess whether the lifted ‘fastback’ profile works, but the crisp detailing, clever surfacing and use of simple graphics make the Tesla Model 3 look blobby and traditional compact executives like the BMW 3-series seem distinctly old-fashioned.

The interior has also been totally reimagined, with a sleek understated cabin dominated by a new 11-inch next-generation infotainment screen that now sits proud of the main dash. The design is not quite as minimalist as that inside the Model 3, but thanks to Volvo’s habitual innovation in ergonomic design, the Polestar is likely to be a step up in terms of quality and ease of use. The infotainment system is also the first to be developed by Google’s smartphone juggernaut Android, Polestar aiming to lean on its expertise in terms of  interface design.

Polestar will launch with the First Edition model in these images, priced at $68,075, a generous $22k more than the entry-level Polestar 2 variants. Whether the headline-grabbing $53k entry-level models will have the same battery and performance figures is still as yet unconfirmed.

This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk

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