When it comes to electric cars, Tesla is the benchmark. A hegemony that historic brands are only now (finally!) beginning to question.
The examples begin to multiply, some more serious than others — just a visit to the tests section of Razão Automóvel is enough to confirm that, there are more and more to choose from. And among the most serious and successful electric cars today is this Polestar 2.
A model that we had the opportunity to test, in Portugal, on the sidelines of an event organized by Polestar for the COTY judges — International Car of the Year. Among photographs, notes and conferences, thanks to Joaquim Oliveira, one of the national COTYs, there was time to make this video. An exclusive for YouTube in Portugal:
Polestar 2 in Portugal
Most likely, we'll only see a Polestar 2 on Portuguese roads again in 2022. Polestar — formerly Volvo's sports division — has become autonomous from the Swedish brand and now has a «life of its own». In practice, the same movement we saw between SEAT and CUPRA.
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In this new phase of its life, Polestar is slowly entering the European market. First in the most important markets, which is, so to speak, larger in size, and then, in a second phase, in smaller markets such as the Portuguese market.
Therefore, there are no official prices for Polestar 2 for Portugal yet. But looking at the markets where this 100% electric with Swedish DNA and Chinese production is present, we should expect prices between 40 000 (access version) and 60 000 euros (more powerful AWD version).
the empire strikes back
Using once more the analogy with which I started this text, the "empire strikes back". And in the case of Polestar 2, the empire attacked with everything.
Under the technological umbrella of Volvo, which ceded all its components to Polestar — from the CMA platform, to the stylistic identity (from which it will progressively move away, as we saw in Precept) — we find in this model the «knowing how to do» of those who already has been in this industry for many decades and never tires of evolving.
At the end of the day, making automobiles is about turning steel and giving it movement. It's in the details, in the finishes, in the alignments of all the panels and in the way everything comes together in the end that you can see that Volvo/Polestar hasn't been here for “half a dozen” of days.
To the “outside the box” vision that Tesla brought to the automotive sector — a contribution that we should all be grateful for — traditional manufacturers are finally able to respond with more interesting and higher value-added products, adding to this additional interest the advantages that ( still) have on the quality of production. At the end of the day, we all win. Industry and consumers.
It's good to see this 100+ year old industry reinventing itself. Interesting times are in, don't you think?