Anthony Hibbs drives a Polestar 2 Single Motor 78kWh 2023.

This is Anthony’s third electric car, he’s owned the Polestar 2 less than 1 year and drives 10,000-15,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 1,000-5,000 miles and he achieves 280 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the Polestar 2?

I was hankering after the superb build quality and reliability of previous Lexus and VW cars. My current IONIQ 5 was disappointing on many levels. I liked the look of the Polestar 2 and read many reviews which were overwhelmingly positive so I booked an appointment and test drive at Polestar Trafford Centre. The staff showed me the car in their showroom then let me take an unaccompanied one hour test drive on a route of my choice.

I was impressed with the car, interior and exterior build quality was exceptional and the test car drove well despite more road noise than expected. I put this down to its 20” wheels and glass panoramic roof.
I enjoyed the drive, found the car to be comfortable with good vision despite its restricted rear screen. Boot space was excellent, particularly with the 2WD version having a motor shaped well under the boot floor. The froot/frunk was also a good size with all cables easily accommodated. The car ticked many, if not all, my boxes and the search began…

Positives – List 3 or more reasons why you love this electric car

• Superb build quality
• Drives like it’s on rails
• interior detail
• practicality of boot and froot storage
• titanium metallic paint suits the cars black elements.
• rear light bar
• digital key
• straight-forward tech
• seat memory
• Google built-in is excellent especially when navigating
• map in drivers display.

Negatives – List 3 or more things that you really don’t like about this electric car

• The centre armrest & storage – awful design, a cup holder you can’t use which ruins the potential storage space under the armrest & the arm slides when you lean on it.
• rear tunnel is intrusive
• the main key looks and feels cheap.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

Not a fault but the car was only supplied with one key, the seller agreed to pay for another. This meant an 80-mile round trip to a Volvo dealer who could supply and programme the new key before I could set up the cars app, remote functions and digital key.

What are the standout technological features of the car?

The tech in my base model is very practical and easy to use. Standouts are:

• Google built-in, the voice recognition is excellent for information, calls and particularly navigation
• using a smartphone as a digital key
• the central screen menus are so straight-forward to navigate, no digging around sub menus to find the setting you want
• profiles – sets the seat for the driver which it recognises by the phone or designated key. How did we live without this?
• auto wipers are perfect
• auto dimming headlights are very intuitive
• lane keep assist is gentle but extremely effective
• speed sign recognition is 99% effective
• boot opens by moving your foot under the bumper, no more putting stuff down or getting grubby fingers!

Surprise us! Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car 

• The fold out curry (or in my case Chinese) hook is very useful
• there is a ticket/pass holder in the windscreen
• the rear wheels are a different size to the front, but all the tyres are the same size, what’s that about?
• the child locks are activated by a switch in the driver’s door, no more “did I didn’t I?” or “I’ll let you out”
• seat memory, what a joy!

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

From our local County Councillor, ‘EVs are responsible for ALL the potholes in our area.’

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

Planning to keep this one for around 5 years.

Please outline both positive & negative elements of your home charging unit

Rolec Smart Wallpod – only useful as a standalone dumb charger, it’s a good thing that car schedulers are so reliable.

Electricity supplier – outline both positive & negative elements

Octopus Go – 4 hours fixed off-peak. I could do with more off-peak time but my car and charger aren’t compatible with any other tariffs.

What public charging networks would you recommend to others and why?

• GRIDSERVE – always work even if the charging speeds are a bit variable
• InstaVolt – expensive but reliable and available because they are expensive
• Pod Point – useful 7kW with a reliable app.

Please outline both positive & negative elements of your insurer?

Saga – best value for my previous car but I’m an insurance tart so have no loyalty to them. Setting up a change of vehicle was easy.

Please itemise where you’re saving money (or not) owning & running a Polestar 2

I’ve had EVs for over 5 years so can’t relate to ICE running costs at all now.

See other Polestar 2 Owner Reviews here