Polestar 2 Hatchback

200kW 69kWh Standard Range SM [Pilot] 5dr Auto [2024]

Pre-reg vehicle

Polestar may be in Tesla’s shadow, but on the face of it, it’s hard to see why.

Polestar may not have a sister company that has a space programme. Still, its name has celestial connotations - and it's hardly some wannabe manufacturer operating out of a shed on an industrial estate.

For a start, the brand is owned by Volvo and bizarrely finds its roots in a Scandinavian touring car team that tuned racers before being rebranded and then taken over by the Swedish car giant.

Like Tesla, it is an all-electric entity, and because its cars are, at the very least, Volvo-inspired, they are at the premium end of the market.

The Polestar 2 is the most familiar of the manufacturer’s vehicles. This is because it's the only vehicle Polestar has produced continuously over the last four years.

The limited-run Polestar 1, a plug-in hybrid, went out of production in 2022, just three years after its launch. But it was more intended as a brief ‘hey there, we exist, and look what we can do!' test run rather than a long-term project.

The Polestar 3 SUV only hit the roads a couple of months ago, while the sportier Polestar 4 SUV will be available next year. Watch this space for reviews on those models soon!

But for this review, we're only interested in the Polestar 2, so keep reading to see if we give it a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.