Polestar 2 Review

Pricing 

Prices for the new line-up begin from £44,950 for the 69kWh single motor car boasting 268bhp and a maximum range of 339 miles on a full charge. The sweet spot of the range for a lot of buyers will be the new Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor version at £48,950, which gets a huge range of 406 miles. 

The Long Range Dual Motor variant comes in at £52,950, while the £57,950 Performance Pack version tries to justify its price with a huge 469bhp and brutal performance, but we'd avoid it for the overly firm ride. Ultimately, these prices are competitive, especially against the BMW i4 and Kia EV6, but the Tesla Model 3 and Hyundai Ioniq can make the Polestar look a bit punchy on list price. PCP finance is much more on point with those cheaper rivals, and you'll get the Long Range Single Motor for around £500 per month or less with a very reasonable deposit or part-exchange, or more like £550 if you want the Plus Pack upgrade and one of the cool, optional metallic paint colours that look like they've come from a Farrow & Ball colour palette. 

Running costs

Firstly, if you are new to electric cars then the running costs of a Polestar in comparison to a petrol or diesel are going to be a big perk, as long as you charge at home most of the time. Top up routinely using your home charger and you'll be paying roughly 8-10p per mile depending on what tariff you're using, and you can cut that to below 5p per miles if use an off-peak electricity tariff. By comparison, a petrol car doing 40mpg will cost around 18p per mile, or a diesel doing 55mpg will come in at around 14p per mile. 

Road tax and various other charges are free or cheaper with an EV too, but the biggest saving will be if you are running the Polestar as a company car. Benefit-in-kind rules mean it is rated at 2% for tax in 2022-25, meaning you’ll save enough out of your wages every year to have a decent holiday with the saving you've made over an equivalent diesel car. 

If you are buying as a retail buyer and plan to part-ex or sell on after a few years, the Polestar holds its value well and should retain 48% of its value after three years and 60,000 miles of use, which isn't bad at all. 

Insurance

The Polestar falls into insurance groups 40-45, which isn't bad at all given the performance on offer and is lower than a lot of similarly powerful rivals. Even so, it's in the higher insurance brackets and you should get a personalised quote before committing to the Polestar as it's likely to be quite pricey to insure. 

Servicing costs

Polestar offers free servicing on all of its models for the first three years and 30,000 miles, which is a useful sweetener. The car will tell you when it needs attention, and that may vary depending on the mileage and type of driving you typically do, but it's reasonable to expect a service reminder every 18 months or so. 

If there is a problem with the car, you're covered by a three year, 60,000 mile warranty (which is a bit underwhelming next to Kia and Hyundai but is par for the course with many manufacturers). The battery is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles, and will be replaced for free if it drops below 70% of the as-new range performance in that period.