AMIRZA786

My Polestar 2 is now reaching it's 1 year anniversary and 11K miles. I wanted to do a follow up thread to talk about how it's held up over the year, and any issues I've run into since I've owned it. I also wanted to create this thread to have discussions on the EV industry as a whole, and my thoughts (and others) on being EV owners. Many of the things I mention here will be based on my experience of owning two EV's over the last 3 years (both strengths and weaknesses), and my discussions with other EV owners. Since I am not an expert on EV's and am learning more about them myself, many things I say here will be based on my opinions which I will make known, and if it's based on facts, I will state and post a link to my source(s). If I post something that turns out to be non factual, I welcome being corrected, for to err is human. I also welcome comments from everyone, regardless if you are pro EV or not, or you are just impartial. I just ask that everyone refrain from posting false information. If it's just your opinion, please state that. If you think it's factual, post your evidence. I don't know if the mod's would allow this, but if you want to discuss your concerns about the power grid, I am open to that as well.

Please Note: This is not an EV VS ICE thread. I spent 30 years of my life owning and driving various ICE vehicles, and I still have deep love and respect for ICE. I also respect people choices for not choosing to move to EV's. If you want to debate which is better, PLEASE START YOUR OWN THREAD!

All my early experiences with my Polestar has already been posted in my previous Polestar thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...estar-2-a.html I'll try not to rehash too much. So on to my Polestar. She has held up very well over the last year, the build quality and interior has held up and I can now say were well thought out by Polestar





It's received several Over The Air updates that have made improvements to the driving experience, efficiency, and even the LED lights. They now have the auto bright feature (which a lot of recent cars now have), and fixed a few bugs. There are still a few annoying bugs that Polestar says that they are fixing this month with their latest OTA update. Also, I will getting an a performance upgrade from them that will raise the power from 408HP to 476HP.

I do want to mention an issue I had in September where suddenly the car would not allow Level 3 Fast Charging (Level 2 still worked). It was taken to a Polestar repair facility where they diagnosed a failed Battery Disconnect Unit (BDU). There were a small number of Polestars in my VIN range that had defective BDU's, and unfortunately mine was one of them. The biggest issue was that the part was on backorder, and it took 6 weeks to get the part, but Polestar took care of me and first loaned me a Lincoln MKZ, then a 2022 Camry SE Enterprise rental





Once they replaced the defective BDU, they shipped my car back to me, as it was in Los Angeles (Polestar Los Angeles/Galpin Volvo in Van Nuys, CA). I have to say, their customer support is amazing. They took care of me every step of the way, kept me up to date, and paid any expenses that incurred due to my car being repaired. I got it back better than I left it!

So the pros of this car over the year:

Good build quality that's held up well
Simplistic, intelligently thought out cabin layout, good quality materials used for the interior
Drivetrain that feels and drives amazing
Quiet cabin, very well isolated from the road
Advanced tech
Software is constantly updated through OTA updates
Very cheap to drive due to its efficiency
Excellent Polestar customer service

Some cons:

Not built on a dedicated EV platform (shares chassis with it's ICE counterpart)
Not nearly as efficient or refinened as a Model 3
Has a few annoying software bugs, occasional glitches
When travelling long distances (more than 200 miles from home) uses the Electrify America charging network which is woefully behind Tesla's charging network
Only has a 400v battery pack, so fast charging times are behind cars like the Ioniq 5, EQS etc

Do I have any regrets leasing this car? No, I love it so far, and I plan to buy it out when it's lease is up in 2025, but if I could do it all over again, I would have bought a Model 3 simply because of Tesla's superior charging infrastructure. I travel quite a bit to SoCal, and a Tesla is a no brainer when travelling long distances (390 miles one way in my case). With the Polestar you are at the mercy of the EA charging network, which I will talk about in future posts. For this same reason, I would not buy another EV at this point in time from any other automaker outside of Tesla (Ford, GM, VW, Audi, Rivian etc etc) unless I drove 200 miles or less. For my wife this car is perfect, as she never drives more than a 100 miles from home, which is why next year it's hers and I will most likely be getting a Model 3 Performance. But don't get me wrong, this is an awesome daily commuter

pbm317

We have enjoyed our Polestar 2 as well. haven't had any major issues as of yet, and the Electrify America network seems pretty good here on the East Coast. Have gone up and back to New York a few times pretty easily. Not sure we'll stay Polestar for the 3 or 4, as we have a Rivian that's due in a few months.

Unfortunately looks like Polestar 2 values have tanked the last 2 months or so.

AMIRZA786

In NorCal itself, EA is good. Plenty of them. When you travel outside the Bay area heading to SoCal, you never know if one or two of them will be offline. The problem is the numbers of EV'S on the road has grown faster than thought, and has overwhelmed EA networks on heavily travelled routes. Tesla on the other hand anticipated growth. If they open their network to non Tesla's, that will help to solve the issue

AMIRZA786

Here is another example of how Tesla has planned and built out a much better charging infrastructure. The first pic is a critical EA charging stop in Bakersfield, CA about 130 miles outside of Los Angeles



There are 4 chargers (2 x 150 kW and 2 x 350 kW chargers). In this picture, 3 of them are offline with only 1 working. There were two techs working on them. There was a queue of 3 cars waiting for the one working one. In this case, we had to go to another EA charging station 13 miles away, and it took us a little out of our way.

In the next picture, just maybe a few hundred feet away are the Tesla Superchargers



There are about 15 of them altogether, all of them working. If those were filled for some reason, you would be routed to another area maybe 2 miles away with 20 Superchargers.

The Tesla network between SF and Los Angeles is humongous and EA doesn't even come close

Toys4RJill

This is some great info.

MDlexus

I'm 19 months in with my Polestar 2. I only experienced 1 issue that required a short visit to the dealer. I enjoy driving it just as much as the day I picked it up. Build quality is great and is one of the most important factors when choosing a vehicle. Leather is available. Never once did I consider a Tesla and would not consider leaving Polestar for a Tesla. It's just not for me. The Polestar 2 has plenty of range for my needs. It handles well and the cabin is extremely quiet. EA chargers by me are almost always working.
Would I do it again? YES
Do I have any regrets? NO

I was considering replacing our Audi Q7 with the Polestar 3, but it won't be available for some time.
Probably better to wait for the Polestar 4, since we don't need a large SUV anyway.


My experience with electrification:
I've had 3 performance hybrids, 1 plug in hybrid, and now full electric.
I will not be getting another ICE vehicle again.

Just my .02.

AMIRZA786

I'm glad you're Polestar continues to serve you well. I definitely have no regrets getting it and intend to keep mine. That said, the Tesla will make my travels to SoCal so much better, thus keeping it in the family and adding a Tesla. That said, the Polestar and Ioniq are the only EV'S other than Tesla I would even consider at this point

Margate330

Great review Amirza, pbm317, and MDlexus!
Enjoyed it.

Suscribed to increase my knowledge about EV's.
I'm all about the "ice, ice, baby" but have lots of EV questions for the future and always like to learn what's new.

jrmckinley

Nice review. I had to rent a car for 2 days last week - I have my pick of President's Circle cars from Hertz.. when I went to return the rental they had 3 Polestar's in the President's Circle... There were none when I did my rental - I was so bummed because I would have loved to give it a whirl. One of my buddies with a Mach E had a Polestar 2 for about 5 weeks while his Mach E was being worked on for some recalls and he absolutely loved the Polestar.

I agree on the charging infrastructure for EA - I personally love the styling of the Cadillac Lyriq but the charging network is a huge drawback compared to Tesla.

AMIRZA786

Within populated cities EA works just fine, the issue with EA pops up when you travel. On the route between NorCal and SoCal through the Central Valley there are enough EA locations, but they usually have 4 to 6 chargers per location, and the problem is that they are now so heavily utilized that they fail at higher rates. On my last trip there was an EA tech working on one of the Fast chargers, and he told me that they are being so heavily utilized that the liquid chillers are getting overwhelmed. Imagine 4 chargers constantly pushing 150 kW or 350 kW with hundreds of cars a day. Tesla anticipated the rapid growth and planned way ahead and are constantly expanding their charging network. EA is also expanding and upgrading, but not fast enough to meet current growth. Eventually they will get there, but the question is when?

bowser

It's also important to note that the Polestar is not limited to EA chargers. There are plenty of alternatives out there. We are just partial to EA because we can charge for free for 2 years

AMIRZA786

You are absolutely correct, but the issue with companies like EVgo and ChargePoint is they usually only have 1 charger, and it's usually no faster than 50 kW. At least the ones I've gone to

AMIRZA786

Just ordered the performance Upgrade for my Polestar, it will push an OTA software update in 14 days. Power will be boosted from 408 HP/487 ft-lbs torque TO 476 HP/502 ft-lbs torque. I call it a cheat code for cars! BTW unlike the EQS's "performance paywall" of $1200 a year subscription, this is a one time power upgrade

MDlexus

Congratulations on the upgrade.
Can't wait to hear how it performs.
Apparently, it's supposed to noticeably improve 40-80 acceleration, 0-60 a little less so.
I know you'll keep us informed.

AMIRZA786

Yep. 50 to 80 mph in 2 seconds. From a dig 0 to 60 has been boosted from 4.4 seconds to 4.1. I've been talking to a lot of people on the Polestar forum who have the upgrade, and it also smooths out the throttle response. As far as range, it only affects range if you are flooring it a lot, which would be the case anyway