The electric car market is sparkling once again and year after year, Tesla’s competitors continue to grow. Nevertheless, so far it is still difficult to find another electric car that is “appropriate” to be compared with the Tesla Model 3.
The sedan is sophisticated, its performance is excellent, the distance is far, and the price is affordable. The intention to create rivals commensurate with Tesla Model 3 might be considered too ambitious by the public, but that did not prevent Polestar from proving it wrong.
Polestar is not a new player in the automotive world. Since 2017, Polestar has been appointed by Volvo as its parent company to be the sub-brand that specifically develops electric cars.
Their first car, Polestar 1, was limited to a hybrid-engined sports car. For both cars, since long ago Polestar has announced that the car is ready to challenge the Tesla Model 3 directly, and they are apparently not just bragging.
Recently, the company officially introduced Polestar 2. The outward appearance immediately looks very Volvo, and that’s because Polestar uses Volvo Concept 40.2 as its base. Quite unique, it looks like a crossover when viewed from the side.
As opposed to the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2 certainly quite optimistic. Sure enough, the combination of a pair of electric motors and four-wheel drive can produce a total power of 300 kW (408 hp), and torque of 660 Nm. Acceleration of 0-100 km / h is taken easily in just 5 seconds.
But the most impressive is its energy efficiency. In one charge, the 78 kWh capacity motor is capable of pushing this car up to 500 kilometers. Of course this is only an estimate and still has to be proven again.
Its performance and efficiency are worthy of matching the Tesla Model 3, but Polestar 2 apparently doesn’t want to be half-hearted in terms of technological sophistication.
This is implied from its minimalist interior, with an 11-inch touch screen that dominates the center of the dashboard.
There is also a Android-based infotainment system resulting from direct collaboration between Volvo and Google. The Google Assistant integration is definitely available, as is access to third party applications via the Google Play Store.
Furthermore, advanced features such as smartphones as car keys are also a standard feature for Polestar 2. The practicality and security issues surrounding this feature are indeed still being debated, but Volvo already has a big vision regarding car sharing services in the future, and at that point smartphones as the key of the car will be an essential supporting component.
Sophisticated, high performance, and efficient, Polestar 2 really has the potential to be the rival to the Tesla Model 3. What about the price? According to Polestar, the lowest variant will be marketed with prices starting at 39,900 euros.
As for the availability, the company still keeping the secret close to their heart as Polestar didn’t release to the public the information regarding the marketing an production process. Hopefully, Volvo can leave the long experience in the field of production to the Polestar team to prevent any problems to happen.
What we knew so far is that the Polestar 2 will be marketed from the beginning of 2020 with prices starting at $ 63,000. The variant is reportedly going to be produced during the first year, which means the new customers will get the cheapest variant in 2021.
