How the Polestar 2 Electric Sedan/Hatch Makes City Life a Breeze

We’ve had so many adventures on the open road in our 2024 Polestar 2 Single Motor that there’s hardly been time to talk about what it’s like to live with our long-term electric fastback on a daily basis. Having racked up nearly 15,000 miles over the last year, we’ve gained an intimate knowledge of this stylish hatchback’s features and quirks. Polestar got a lot of things right with its first-ever EV, but city life has also revealed a lot of shortcomings.

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A Day in the Life of Our 2024 Polestar 2

One of the quality-of-life features that we appreciate about our Polestar 2 is the responsive keyless entry system. You’d think this wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but our Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and Fisker have taught us otherwise. Walking up to the car and placing your hand into the handle opens all four doors. You don’t even need to make contact—simply dipping your fingers into the empty space can quickly unlock the doors for rear passengers. The locking sensor also accurately detects your fingertip. Once you’re inside the cabin, the car turns on automatically as soon as you’ve put your foot on the brake pedal. The Polestar 2 takes moments to wake up and initialize its dual screens, so by the time you’ve buckled your seatbelt the car is ready to go.

Although the Polestar 2 comes standard with wired Apple CarPlay (Android Auto is excluded because of the Google Built-in operating system), I tend to go cordless and just log in to my Google account on the center display, allowing the use of Google Maps with my own saved locations and pins. This also grants access to my YouTube Music account, although I also log in to the car’s well-designed Spotify app for algorithmic variety. The Polestar 2’s Google Assistant voice commands are triggered when you say “Hey Google,” allowing you to not only pick music but also start navigating. Most commuting days, I typically would say, “Hey Google, navigate to work” and be on my way. The voice commands can also adjust the climate control and heated seats.

The Polestar 2 has 5.9 inches of ground clearance, which has been high enough to avoid scraping its nose on the many steep driveway lips in and around Los Angeles. Around town, the ride errs on the rough side. The Polestar 2 tends to jitter over poorly paved surfaces, with lots of road noise making its way into the cabin. However, on freeway ramps and smoother roads, the Polestar 2’s body control and ride quality are excellent. There are three settings for steering wheel feedback: Light, Standard, and Firm. Light doesn’t provide much feedback, whereas Firm feels too stiff. I generally use the Standard profile, although if I feel lazy, I’ll enable the Light setting.

Our Polestar 2’s one-pedal driving mode is great for city driving. The accelerator is well-tuned, with linear responsiveness. Give the Polestar 2 the beans, and its single motor provides plenty of torque for the cut and thrust of congestion. With 299 hp and a recorded 0–60 mph time of just 5.3 seconds, you never worry about getting up to highway speeds. When you lift, regenerative braking is gradually applied until your foot is all the way of the pedal. Maximum non-mechanical braking force feels strong, and stepping on the brake pedal hauls the Polestar 2 down from 60 to 0 mph in 124 feet. The regenerative and friction brake modes blend well enough, although if you’re not careful it’s easy to overdo it with the disc brakes. Most of the time, regenerative braking is more than enough for stop-and-go traffic, driving on the freeway, or coming to a halt at the end of an offramp.

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For the first half of our time with our long-term Polestar 2, I relied on Level 3 public DC fast charging, since my apartment complex doesn’t have any outlets inside its parking garage. Eventually, waiting the 30 minutes to an hour for one of the four Electrify America 350-kW chargers in my neighborhood to become available got so tiresome I adopted a different strategy. The MotorTrend office has a bank of about a dozen ChargePoint Level 2 AC chargers, so I’ve been working on a hybrid schedule that allows me to juice up the Polestar 2 while I’m at my desk. This typically adds around 40 kW to the battery, about half the battery’s maximum capacity. Unless I’m on a road trip or driving out of town, plugging in at the office once or twice a week is enough to keep our Polestar 2 on the road without any range anxiety.

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Convenient and Connected

For running errands, the Polestar 2 is a delight. We’ve praised its clever trunk in the past, but the excellent packaging of our car’s cargo hold is an engineering marvel. The hatch fits three Bankers boxes side-by-side with plenty of room to spare. There’s even underfloor stowage that can hold a large duffel bag. When I'm only bringing home one or two grocery bags, as I typically do when I stop at the store on the way home from work, I can flip up the center divider in the trunk. This allows my backpack to be safe and snug behind the rear seats while the two grocery bags are strapped to the flip-up panel with an elastic band. This ensures nothing flops around under acceleration or braking. I love this feature and wish more automakers would employ solutions like this to secure loose items. Our car also has a parcel shelf, so anything underneath the glass hatch is hidden from sight. There’s a small frunk in the 2’s nose, but it isn’t good for much more than its portable charging cable, which we’re glad isn’t taking up space in the rear trunk.

Once I get home, I’m able to open the Polestar 2’s powered trunk from the front seat or with a button located dead center above the license plate. Once the car is locked up, I’m able to monitor its location and charging status with the Polestar app, and I can even turn on the air conditioning in advance if I’m going back to the car on a hot day. Polestar’s app doesn’t have all of the granular functionality that we’ve enjoyed with our long-term Tesla Model Y, but it does offer a decent variety of remote services. We recommend owners download the Polestar app to get the most out of their time with their vehicles. Periodically, Polestar’s infotainment interface prompts you to authorize an update, which the car runs overnight or at a scheduled time of your choosing.

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A Good Car With Some Quirks

Generally, the Polestar 2 makes daily life better. It offers driver engagement, thoughtful touches, and enough range for folks who rely solely on public charging. Still, there are some things we’d like to see change if Polestar ever applies another major refresh to the 2. The cabin is well-made overall, but there are some cheap plastics and coarse surfaces that should be replaced with nicer materials. Driving our long-term Tesla made me envious of our Model Y’s dual wireless phone charging trays; our Polestar 2’s single wireless charger shares a cubby with some awkwardly placed USB-C ports that are hard to access. Plus, the cabin looks unsightly with the cords spilling all over the minimalist surfaces. Passengers haven’t loved the second-row experience, either. Some felt the seating was slightly cramped and others thought the ride was uncomfortable, as the Polestar 2 is sprung on the stiffer side.

Overall, the Polestar 2 has been a solid commuter and a great grocery-getter. We’d be remiss not to praise its odd but interesting body style. As a taller-riding fastback, the Polestar 2 splits the difference between the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y SUV, filling a niche that isn’t offered in Tesla’s lineup. As someone who’s always out and about, running errands or taking weekend trips, I’ve enjoyed the way our Polestar 2 balances enjoyable handling with everyday practicality. We’re going to be sad when it leaves our fleet.

For More on Our Long-Term 2024 Polestar 2:

• 2024 Polestar 2 Single Motor Yearlong Review Arrival: Meet Our Far-Driving Fastback
• 2024 Polestar 2 Single Motor Yearlong Review: Long-Range Road Trip Champ?
• Our 2024 Polestar 2 Can Drive Farther Than Google Thinks
• Our Polestar 2 May Lowkey Be One of the Best Road-Tripping EVs
• How Does the Polestar 2 Electric Car's Safety Tech Stack Up?
• Repairing Our 2024 Polestar 2’s Damaged Mudflap Cost Us a Small Fortune
• Our Yearlong-Review Polestar 2 EV Faces a 1,200-Mile Road-Trip Test
• The Best Apps You Need For Your New EV: Pros and Cons

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