Burning the midnight oil again?
On June 22, 2021, my flight landed in a strange city. I silently drank the last sip of mineral water sent on the plane, and my throat still hurt. At this moment, what I was thinking about was not hotpot or beautiful women all over the streets, but sleep.
Hot and sleepy, with a sore throat and a runny nose, I carried a drunkard down three floors in another city the night before, and drove hundreds of kilometers back home on the night before that. And this time, the test drive of Polestar 2 was actually on a night road trip, and it was in the mountain city of Chongqing! I stupidly sat in the last row of the Coaster, letting the bumpy mountain road ravage me. My mental and physical strength were declaring that my body had reached the verge of sleep.
We arrived at the venue around 4:30. As soon as I found out that there was smoked salmon at the refreshment stand, which cheered me up, my wildly secreted saliva was interrupted by a WeChat message that rang out. Oh, it turned out that I still had a conference call with a client at 5 o’clock today… Sigh, I’m so tired.
High specifications
Then at 5:30, the presentation of Polestar 2 began. When I was still curious about why there were wireless headphones rented from museums on every seat, it turned out that Nathan Forshaw, CEO of Polestar Asia Pacific, was also present, so there would definitely be a Q&A session.
The main speaker Chetan Kotur, appearing on the screen in the form of live video, also has a high profile. As a former right-hand man of the CEO of Polestar, he is now the product director of the Asia Pacific region. For this event, which had two foreign speakers, Polestar arranged simultaneous interpreters. And what shocked me was that, in this one-hour-plus presentation, the simultaneous interpreter continued to output high energy without making any mistakes in the complex technical explanations and Q&A, except for referring to charging stations as gas stations.
As for the Q&A session at the end, I was lucky to have the last chance to throw out my only question that could “challenge” Nathan Forshaw, the CEO of the Asia Pacific region, before it was snatched away by more powerful colleagues:
We know that Geely has this huge universe of brands, and what do you plan to differentiate Polestar among other products…Clearly, Nathan was somewhat displeased with the voices questioning the homogenization, and after his professional manager-like response, he directly stated unequivocally:
We are already different.
Wow, so confident! I really want to see what makes Polestar 2 different from other electric vehicles on the market and where the product comes from.
ÖHLINS, it’s fabulous!
When I got in the car, I realized that our accompanying coach was Rune, who has been deeply involved in the racing industry and is also an old acquaintance of Polestar. He made great efforts on the engineering validation model test drive of the Polestar 1 two years ago.
Polestar 2 has been on the market for some time, so the core of my visit this time is not simply to understand its product points, nor to understand its new native Android automotive operating system, but its high-performance package.
An optional high-performance package consisting of Brembo monobloc four-piston calipers, Öhlins DFV shock absorbers, and 20-inch forged wheels, as well as the exclusive Swedish gold safety belt and valve cap in the same color as the caliper to show off its identity. Therefore, driving in the road conditions of Chongqing, there is no better car to test drive than this one.
Japanese automotive media often use a common description to describe a car with an excellent chassis: “You will know when you drive an excellent car for just two or three meters.” I think even the Swedish Öhlins DFV double-flow valve shock absorbers cannot bring such a feeling. Because such a cliché doesn’t have any reference value for me, just like the Chinese media teacher’s “clear road feel”. However, I was proven wrong. I underestimated Öhlins. The Japanese were apparently not wrong, and the description of Chinese media teachers is not just empty talk.
After driving a few meters, I found that this was a car with a clear road feel. The texture and granularity of the asphalt road can be transmitted to the steering system and the body through the wheels, and finally perceived through my hands and hips. It feels like I’m in a softener advertisement for a certain brand, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, wearing a white shirt, standing in my backyard, touching the high-thread-count towel made of pure Xinjiang cotton hanging on the clothesline in the lawn, and feeling the delicate friction of the towel.After waking up from my daydream, I realized, oh! This is what “road feel” is all about! The communication between the vehicle and grip is so clear that I feel I could know which speed is safe to take this turn. Öhlins’ DFV product is essentially a top-tier existence in the aftermarket automotive industry, and takes the form of a coilover suspension kit that can change the body height. However, the Öhlins DFV on this car is just a stock suspension kit and cannot adjust the ride height.
Is the seemingly discounted suspension inferior to modified products? Apparently not. In fact, every car has its own most suitable suspension geometry, which is not necessarily the lower the better or the higher the better. My thoughts were affirmed by Lu, our guide in the back seat who patiently pointed us in the right direction.
He added that they had compared this car with other models they had tested and performed slalom tests. The Polestar 2 is the only car that can maintain this drifting state throughout the bend with full throttle, and the dynamic connection is very smooth. Moreover, the calibration of this suspension system stands out from nearly 200 combinations of different springs, valves, and shock absorber oils.
I remembered a quote from a racer friend who said to me over drinks:
Modified cars are at best handicrafts. What you’re creating is your own industrial waste.
With 22 stages of damping adjustment, it is indeed only a 1-way (simultaneously adjusting rebound damping and compression damping with no differentiation between high and low speeds). But you have to understand that this is the result of carefully calibrated by the OEM engineers, and is not something that a few aftermarket shops can achieve by tightening a few screws and turning a few knobs on the shock absorber you bought on discount.
The Öhlins DFV suspension on the Polestar 2 is a one-size-fits-all solution with default settings of 10 in the front and 10 in the rear for driving on urban roads, and it responds to almost all road input with a single compression without any unnecessary movements. And the manufacturer is also very considerate to tell you the correct solution. In track mode, it is 1 in the front and 3 in the rear, saving you the trouble of buying a set of modified shock absorbers and pretending to know how to adjust them yourself.
Due to the structural advantages of the patented valve body, the shock absorber oil flow rate during rebound is faster than that of ordinary shock absorber structures, allowing the tire to touch the ground quickly and reducing airborne time. The 20-inch forged wheels also effectively reduce the mass under the springs, so that this car has both the handling of a modified car and the texture of an OEM car. This is the greatest charm of the OEM-modified Öhlins!### BREMBO Brake, Is It Worth It?
In Chongqing, where there are many mountain roads, bends, and traffic lights, the driving experience of a car depends not only on the suspension system but also on the driving, steering, and brake systems. In this environment with frequent stops and slopes, pure electric vehicles have a natural advantage. What’s even better is that the accelerator pedal adjustment of the Polestar 2 allows for precise control of the vehicle speed.
Linear response is not always the best for the accelerator pedal, but the Polestar 2’s power output logic evidently has a two-stage gain. The gain of the first stage of the accelerator pedal is gentle, while the second stage is more linear and has a larger gain. This provides precise control of the vehicle’s speed in the normal city driving speed range with a moderately stiff accelerator pedal.
The steering of the Polestar 2 feels natural, with no sudden increase in steering force after leaving the neutral position, and the return-to-center damping is just right, not too light like many cheaper cars, nor too heavy and sluggish like older Mercedes-Benz models.
Passing through the Hongyadong, the most congested part of the Chongqing trip. Though I could have used Pilot Assist, the adaptive cruise control system, to liberate my right foot at zero speed, obviously, the following distance was not optimized for this kind of urban road condition, and the lane-keeping assist was not suitable for the discontinuous city road markings. The reason for not using it is not just to avoid being cut in line, but also to avoid the headache of having the horn honked at me due to an excessively long following distance.
Of course, I could also control the car’s speed closely and follow closely the front car, even at an extremely low and constant speed. This is something that is difficult for traditional gasoline cars and some electric cars to achieve. With the optional one-pedal mode, the Polestar 2 operates very smoothly in low-speed road conditions. In fact, during my test drive in Chongqing, I only used the brake pedal five times.
So, is the Brembo caliper a bit overkill? This four-piston caliper is larger than the Brembo F50 OEM model used by some new domestic electric vehicle companies, and it is a one-piece design. A larger caliper means a larger heat capacity and better anti-fade performance, while a one-piece design means a stronger rigidity and better pedal feel. In fact, two of the five braking operations were purely to experience the pedal feel of this caliper.
Although the Polestar 2 weighs more than 2 tons, the massive calipers and 375 mm ventilated discs provide a braking experience that feels like the transformation of kinetic energy into heat energy through the entropy process is imaged in my mind. Stepping on the pedal of this car is a pleasure, and every foot can taste the magic of the braking engineers applied to the car. The brake pedal stroke is small, and the pressure change of the foot can be used to linearly control the deceleration. At the same time, as the original factory brake, it does not have the noise and maintenance requirements of modified brakes. The book data of the braking distance is not everything, and the controllable brake is the confidence source of the driver. In this regard, Polestar has mastered it.
These details may be the unique selling points that make people pay for it
This three-hour driving experience was conducted after I sat on a plane for more than two hours. I found a magical thing, that is, my waist has not sent any warning. It seems that Polestar has inherited Volvo’s excellent seat design skills. Carefully feeling with the waist, the seat is not soft. However, its support and curve are just right, making you feel that the force on the body is even.
Another thing that I particularly appreciate is the UI design of the dashboard in this car. One of the UIs is a minimalist design mainly composed of text, which gives me a feel of Japanese-style mecha, with a restrained science fiction feel, quietly stimulating the chuunibyou personality living in my heart.
The sound effect of the turn signal is also an interesting point. At first, I thought the sound was a broken horn in the car, because its sound effect is similar to the electrical noise produced by a switch audio device. As I got used to this more low-frequency sound, I found that its invasiveness was lower, but the recognition was still high.
The native Android-based navigation system in cars is almost the same as that in smartphones, but it also supports multiple waypoints. This feature, which Tesla fans have been calling for Musk to include in the requirements pool for a long time, is actually quite important for electric car self-driving trips that require strategic planning for charging strategies.
The repeated appearance of Swedish Krona elements in the car’s console also echoes the high-performance kit of the car. The UI design and overall style are highly unified, unlike some new forces where each screen has a different style which can be confusing. In terms of speech localization, it surpasses German OEMs with a dual system of iFlytek and Tmall Genie. There is also Huawei’s app market, which can run mainstream apps like Bilibili. So, this 11.15-inch central control screen is not just an ornamental decoration, but also supports OTA upgrades.
During the night test drive in Chongqing, I also had a chance to experience the Pixel matrix LED headlights. They recognize cars and bicycles through cameras, enabling the high-beam lights to selectively avoid vehicles ahead. After all, one’s own safety is also based on the safety of other cars. With the dynamic lighting effect that moves with the front vehicle, it also creates a cyberpunk feel on the boring night road, maintaining my attention.
Only those who know, know
This is obviously not a car that everyone can understand. If you look at it from an architectural angle, the CMA is not a particularly advanced platform. The front is a MacPherson strut, and the rear is a multi-link, which is not very generous at this price point. However, if your understanding has surpassed form, in the pursuit of a pure experience, this car’s interpretation of driving feel, unique design style and persistence in safety and environmental protection will make you realize that the Polestar 2 is actually the only choice for a medium-sized pure electric SUV.
At the party on the evening of the event, the star user of Polestar 2, Zhou Delin, expressed his reasons for choosing the car. He said that he didn’t choose the car because of its environmental concept or handling, nor was it purely because of its safety. These are all just formalities. He bought Polestar 2 because he felt love through this product.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.