Polestar 1 review: what is it? Why is it?
Driving the first and last of Polestar's hybrids
The Polestar 1 doesn't make a huge amount of sense – even to its maker. You see, Polestar launched with the 1 back in 2017, a hybrid halo car for a brand that would very quickly focus on building pure-electric cars only. So the Polestar 1 is a bit of an oddity that in many ways goes against the brand's powertrain ethos – but in so many more ways, it's a brilliant thing that feels like no other car on sale.
Is it worth £140,000 though? And should you be rushing to pick one up before they go out of production later in 2021? Some of these questions and more that you didn't ask, will be answered in the video and written bits below.
What is it?
It's a slinky looking coupe powered by a complicated hybrid system, and it sort of has four seats except the rear two are tiny.
The front wheels are powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged and supercharged petrol engine that puts out 326hp. This is joined by two 85kW motors on the rear axle and a 52kW crank-integrated start generator. All up, that gives you 610hp and 1000Nm of torque, for a 0-60mph time of 4.2 seconds and a top speed of 155mph, or 100mph in electric-only mode.
Meet our favourite rear end of the past three years
The electric bits are powered by a 34kWh battery pack that can carry the Polestar 77 miles on a charge – further than pretty much any other plug-in hybrid.
How does it drive?
Probably not quite how you expect. It's certainly very brisk, but not quite pull-your-face-off-and-feed-it-to-the-monkeys rapid away from a standstill. The roll-on acceleration is mighty impressive, however, and there's a noticeable shift in the way the car feels as you flip between driving modes, mostly thanks to the torque vectoring on the rear axle. We tended to use the hybrid mode for most of our driving, before slipping into POWER mode when we hit country roads.
The switch between EV-only and petrol-assisted driving is marked by a growl from the four-pot engine under the bonnet, and it's not an especially cultured noise for a £140,000 car. But it's punchy enough and most of the time you end up surfing the electric torque to fire away from roundabouts at a great rate of knots.
What about the handling?
The handling is a bit of an odd one. The Polestar 1's a heavy car at 2.35 tonnes, and it really feels as if it wants to be a Bentley-rivalling GT car rather than a sports car. So it's weird, then, that it has manually adjustable Ohlins suspension. Yup, you can pop the lightweight bonnet to twiddle your suspension like a be-fleeced trackday addict who spends a lot of time on internet forums. Exactly who's going to bother doing that we're not sure – and it feels remiss not to have electrically adjustable dynamic dampers, and the ride's never quite as soft as you'd like.
Huge Akebono calipers get a workout hauling the 2.35-tonne mass to a stop
But still, you can get into an enjoyable flow with the Polestar 1 down a country road, though it will understeer eventually and resists most attempts to get it to slide like a loon. Don't buy one expecting it to put a huge helmsmith smile on your face.
The six-piston Akebono brakes are good, but the brake pedal does have that vagueness you get from some hybrids as they switch between regenerative and physical braking.
Does it work as a hybrid?
During our week testing the Polestar 1 we took it on a 180-mile round-trip to Silverstone to drive a Bentley. On the 90-mile trip there it spent nearly the entire time in electric mode, which is impressive considering we were sitting at 80mph on the motorways. As a result it returned an easy 56mpg – stunning for a car with this level of performance. On the way back, with an empty hybrid battery, we got closer to 30mpg. Still rather good. You can recharge the battery at 50kW, which means it only takes just over half an hour to re-fill.
More than any other hybrid, this is one to recommend for someone whose commute has a charger at either end – you could easily do 80-90 miles without using the petrol engine.
Okay… sounds intriguing
Perhaps the nicest thing about the Polestar 1 is how it cruises in reasonable comfort. Frameless door mirrors reduce drag by 30% compared to regular ones, and they look uber cool as well as reducing wind noise to all but a whisper.
Yellow seatbelts. Thumbs up from us. Left-hand-drive only? Thumbs down…
Thanks to a glass roof the cabin's airy and the general Volvo-esque ambience is stunning, with a cold crystal gear selector forming the centrepiece of an impeccably designed cabin. We got a bit annoyed by a super-squeaky back seat which needed the Bowers & Wilkins stereo turning up to drown out.
The rear seats will be fine for tiny children who somehow don't need bulky car seats
There's a bunch of virtual sound stages for the stereo, including one based on the Gothenburg Concert Hall – which is actually just a bit too reverby for extended listening. Set to a normal mode, the sound system is absolutely ridiculous, pumping out a really clear sound with enough precise bass to rattle your fillings. It's good enough to make you want to go for a drive just to listen to your tunes.
What else should I know?
Well, the infotainment system is fine – it's Volvo's system – but there's no wireless smartphone mirroring or even wireless charging in the cabin.
The crystal gear selector is cold to the touch
There's not a huge amount of storage space in the cabin and almost less in the tiny 126-litre boot space, which contains a clear acrylic window showing all the cables that are using the space where you'd really like to put your shopping.
Should I buy one?
To look at? Yes, absolutely. If you can afford £140,000 for a bit of an automotive curiosity (albeit a beautiful one), then go for it. But it's fair to say that the Polestar 1 falls in an odd space when you judge it purely as an expensive car. It's not quite comfy or squeak-free enough to be a GT, and it's definitely not got the handling excitement to be a sports car.
Carbon dashboard inlays remind you that most of the bodywork is also carbon-reinforced polymer
It's the sort of car you buy because you want to make a statement – you could've bought a Bentley or a McLaren, but you've gone a different way – a more future-looking way – and bought something utterly beautiful instead.
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Comments (20)
It’s too much money for a hybrid, especially as Volvo do other hybrids at half the price. It’s a massive price hike for a sleek body especially as the interior is the same as other Volvos.
What this car needs is a £50k price tag and a 3.0 twin turbo diesel under the bonnet (with all the clean diesel tech) but that won’t appease the Greenpeace activists!!
I couldn’t agree more with you... and Greenpeace « activists » don’t rule the world !
I know, legislations seem to rule the world with duff information.
By the way the average cow produces more CO2 than modern clean diesels, and the NOX that is the actual real concern is a problem with old petrol/diesels and not the latest...
Read moreI won’t lie, I thought the Polestar 1 was fully-electric until I watched a review on it a few months back. I don’t see why it wasn’t from the start? But I’m liking the transition the brand is facing right now.
I don't like EV but I like Volvo. Therefore this thing is a bit schizophrenic for me.
Let's buy one and put a V8 in! Speed and powrrrrr
anyone else still mad that Volvo didn't produce those Polestar tuned cars?
Personally, I don’t think many people will buy the Polestar 1 because - as you said - you can buy other cars such as Bentleys and McLarens for the cash.
With that being said, I suspect the Polestar 1 will have one effect: it’ll help change our current perception of EVs. Many may soon view them as sleek and stylish as opposed to slow and impractical.
Great review Tim.
But it's a hybrid. still has that dna we love