The Polestar 2 gets a facelift, more power – and more range

The Polestar electric sedan has a new look, more efficient electric motors and a range of 635 km.

The Polestar 2 has been billed as the first real competitor to the Tesla Model 3 in 2020. Sure, the design can be argued, but quite a few would probably call the electric sedan the prettier Model 3.

The new Polestar 2.Photo: Polestar

In terms of range and driver assistance systems, the Swedish-Chinese co-production lost out to Tesla, As our test showed.

Now Polestar, a subsidiary of Volvo and China’s Geely, is offering an updated version of the Polestar 2 with revised looks, and more assistance systems as standard and new electric motors. These have more power and increase efficiency and therefore range – the latter wasn’t particularly as powerful as the Model 3 competitor yet.

New Polestar 2: The front grill has been closed.Photo: Polar Star

For comparison: the previous Polestar 2.Photo: Polar Star

The featured grill on the front is the date. As with the Polestar 3, the opposite area now houses the front camera and radar sensors.

More power, charging speed and range

With the new model, the single-engine variants are swapped from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive and range increases up to 635 kilometers as standard in WLTP. According to the manufacturer, the Polestar 2 contains more environmentally friendly batteries with improved cell chemistry.

As before, there are four versions:

The standard version comes with an LG battery with an unchanged capacity of 69 kWh. This should now be possible up to 518 instead of 478 km.

The three long-range variants now had CATL’s 82 kWh batteries instead of the 78 kWh battery. With a long-range single-engine model, the official range increases from 551 to 635 kilometers.

The maximum charging power increases from 130 to 135 kW for the cheaper model with a smaller battery and from 155 to 205 kW for the longer range versions with a larger battery.

Photo: Polar Star

Standard equipment has also been revised: this now includes Blind Spot Assist with steering intervention, Cross Traffic Alert with Brake Support, Rear Collision Warning, 360-degree Around View and automatically-dimming outside mirrors.

Inside, there’s still a central 11.2-inch display with Google’s Android Automotive OS.Photo: Polar Star

The updated model can be ordered now from CHF48,900 and deliveries are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2023.

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