When are you going fully electric?

Only personal in the sense you are talking about your own very unique situation rather than maybe stepping back looking at the wider picture?

You did mention it before, not sure I often look for endorsement using a forum... so you'll have to forgive me for not actually doing anything about those comments :)
 
VincentHanna said:
They've announced the MY22 Polestar 2 now with various options such as lower range, FWD only etc.

The dual motor version with all the options has gone up £3000 over the previous version...but it does now have a heat pump.

https://www.polestar.com/global/press/press-release/polestar-2-model-range-expands-to-three-variants
Click to expand...


Yeah, seems to have kept a good spec whilst down speccing the powertrain and sneaking below £40k. This is a sensible move for both fleet company car drivers rates and personal buyers taxation who don’t what the full beans performance.
 
Almost a week since I’ve has the Polestar 2 now so I thought I’d share a few perspectives.

Why an Electric Car?

Let’s start at the beginning. I’d love to say that I chose an EV for environmental reasons, or to save a few quid on fuel but tbh the decision was almost entirely down to company car BIK being so low.

For £350 a month, I could get a fully subsidised >£60k car (insurance, maintenance, even the electric). Winner.

For context, my previous cars have been a 320D, E89 Z435i, M135i, F10 530D and a new A6 50TDI

First Impressions

I had never seen a Polestar or even driven an EV before I took delivery of the car, so I was unsure what to expect. What I can say, is that the car looks MUCH better in the flesh than in pictures. It sort of has an understated muscle car feel about it.

Stepping in to the car for the first time I felt it was a bit small - not a massive surprise coming from an A6 I guess. After a week, though it feels about right. Not massive amount of storage but should just about suffice for a couple of kids (and we have a bigger car for my wife).

The quality of the interior is exceptional. I went with the Napa Leather option which is well up there and probably above the quality of the 5 series I had. It feels very premium inside indeed. It’s very minimalist, very well thought out and exceptionally relaxing to be in. A decent step above the A6 for me.

Performance

Wow. I’d watched every YouTube video you can imagine before I got the car, but I wasn’t prepared for just how fast and just how immediate the power delivery is.

This feels significantly faster than anything I’d owned before. I thought I’d miss the engine noise but I really don’t - the silence is rather relaxing.

It’s a proper sleeper. It has surprised a few premium sports cars over the last few days ;)

Handling

This is the one that surprised me a bit. It’s a heavy car, no doubt - but the centre of gravity is so low that it feels much more ‘chuckable’ that you’d expect. It handles rather well considering - it’s only at quite high (mostly illegal) speeds that you feel the weight wanting to push you into the hedges when cornering.

Practicality

Storage is decent and very creative (thanks, Volvo) so it’s really the EV aspect that I wanted to discuss here. I’m still getting used to it. I don’t yet have a charger at home so have relied (albeit only a couple of times) on public chargers.

The process seems super easy to me - it’s just taking some getting used to planning journeys in a more deliberate manner. Today, for example I took a book to a local charger and spent an hour there - actually a nice break from the screen.

Overall this is an incredible piece of kit. I know I’m only a week in and very much still in the honeymoon period, but I think this might just be the best car I’ve ever owned.

hNUYTQ4.jpg


ZQlj6MC.jpg
 
We moved into a property recently and I've been meaning to find out about the electric charger installed and left in place by the previous occupants. It is a little round white box on the side of the house which says chargedev on it. A quick google suggests it may be a 7KW type 2 model. No idea if this is any good. Is this good for EV cars of today and into the future? Couple of other questions:

1: It has a little amber LED on all the time, I take it this is costing me nothing to keep it online and connected all the time (I currently own no electric vehicles). i.e. I have nothing ever plugged into it drawing charge but it still shows an amber standby light constantly. I see no way of turning it "off" apart from disconnecting it at the meter.

2: In this thread people talk of single vs 3 phase supplies and that to future proof, 3 phase is good to be able to support higher power chargers. Is there an easy way to tell what I have out of interest? In my main fuse box to the house the main fuse is 100A and the red main switch is a wide one which looks to span across 2 and a bit times the normal width of a switch.
 
Do you have 3 phase at your house?

I jest...

Lovely looking car. We were very tempted to get this on the NHS lease as we could tow the caravan with it... Although we decided in reality the current range when towing just wasn't practical for us.

Looking at yours I kind of wish we just went for it!

Look. Forward to future reviews of it.
 
jaybee said:
We moved into a property recently and I've been meaning to find out about the electric charger installed and left in place by the previous occupants. It is a little round white box on the side of the house which says chargedev on it. A quick google suggests it may be a 7KW type 2 model. No idea if this is any good. Is this good for EV cars of today and into the future? Couple of other questions:

1: It has a little amber LED on all the time, I take it this is costing me nothing to keep it online and connected all the time (I currently own no electric vehicles). i.e. I have nothing ever plugged into it drawing charge but it still shows an amber standby light constantly. I see no way of turning it "off" apart from disconnecting it at the meter.

2: In this thread people talk of single vs 3 phase supplies and that to future proof, 3 phase is good to be able to support higher power chargers. Is there an easy way to tell what I have out of interest? In my main fuse box to the house the main fuse is 100A and the red main switch is a wide one which looks to span across 2 and a bit times the normal width of a switch.
Click to expand...

Type 2 chargers are what every car has and will have going forward. With the exception of older Nissan Leafs (the newer ones are type 2).

I’d just turn it off on the consumer unit if your not using it. There isn’t any harm leaving it on, it’s probably costing 0.1p a day unless some cheeky so and so helps them selves to it when your not there!

Alternatively you could put it on something like plugshare or zap map and hire it out to people.

Looking at the supply wires to your house, if you only have one positive and one neutral, it’s single phase. You’ll know if you have 3 phase, it’s incredibly rare in the U.K.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Basher that blue and cream combo looks spot on, the gold belts also seem to work.

Quite a shock isn’t it, and then dirty cheap running cost, no idling/fumes etc. Real duality to the performance and refinement an EV offers. :cool:
Click to expand...
Yeah I was really worried that the gold seatbelts would look weird against the cream leather - but it's spot on.

Yeah, I'm lucky in that I don't pay for the electric but 'filling up' for a tenner is pretty awesome!
 
WJA96 said:
Because I use my car. I’ve done 450 miles today. I’ve rapid charged 3 times. And when I get home tonight at 10pm I’ll stick it on charge and it’ll be full at 6am tomorrow.

Not everyone does 10K miles per year.
Click to expand...

You are the anomaly though, not everybody else. :p

Average car journey is 9 miles and the average annual mileage is 10,000 but only 23% of people do more than 10,000 with 33% doing between 5000 and 10,000 miles and 35% doing less than 5,000 miles per year.

That fact is 68% of motorists do less than 10,000 miles per annum.
 
Well I've just bought a vauxhall corsa e....

Not quite at the level of most of the EVs in this thread but it's replacing a 12 year old fiesta as a small city car and for that, it felt absolutely perfect.

After test driving it, I can't even imagine how quick polestars and teslas must feel as in sport mode, the corsa was surprisingly fast. As Basher said about the polestar, the corsa handling was really quite decent as although its heavy, it felt very balanced and not at all barge-like.

They also did a home charging point for £450 so I said yes.... Not sure what model they will supply but I'm expecting to be contacted tomorrow to find out.
 
Basher said:
Overall this is an incredible piece of kit. I know I’m only a week in and very much still in the honeymoon period, but I think this might just be the best car I’ve ever owned.
Click to expand...

Too many people write off EV's before even driving one, but once they have, or own one, there are so few who will go backwards. Things are only getting better from the charging point-of-view as well, so even less reason to adopt a fossil burner. As for your noise comment, I used to live next to a main road so appreciate how quiet BEV's really are at 30mph, I don't think I'd have moved as quickly otherwise (oh and the fumes).
 
DanTheMan said:
After test driving it, I can't even imagine how quick polestars and teslas must feel as in sport mode, the corsa was surprisingly fast. As Basher said about the polestar, the corsa handling was really quite decent as although its heavy, it felt very balanced and not at all barge-like.
Click to expand...

How long a test drive did you get - your choice of route ? (and, getting a test drive, that's nice) - what's the waiting time.
 
jpaul said:
How long a test drive did you get - your choice of route ? (and, getting a test drive, that's nice) - what's the waiting time.
Click to expand...

Well the website said a 48 hour test drive when I enquired but the 'demo car' was currently being used by the sales guy. It had all his motorbike gear in the boot and rear seats! I took it out for about 30 minutes but he was happy to do longer, I'd just done everything I wanted to by then.

To be fair, I only enquired today about a test drive and just chose the nearest dealership so it was very short notice.

Its a pre reg I've bought so it's already in stock. It will be delivered in a week. Not to sure on unregistered cars but there isn't a huge option list, it's only really your choice of colour that might delay things.
 
DanTheMan said:
Well I've just bought a vauxhall corsa e....

Not quite at the level of most of the EVs in this thread but it's replacing a 12 year old fiesta as a small city car and for that, it felt absolutely perfect.

After test driving it, I can't even imagine how quick polestars and teslas must feel as in sport mode, the corsa was surprisingly fast. As Basher said about the polestar, the corsa handling was really quite decent as although its heavy, it felt very balanced and not at all barge-like.

They also did a home charging point for £450 so I said yes.... Not sure what model they will supply but I'm expecting to be contacted tomorrow to find out.
Click to expand...

Good choice. We are really enjoying ours.

I think the home charging point will be a PodPoint. :)
 
Joe T said:
Good choice. We are really enjoying ours.

I think the home charging point will be a PodPoint. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was very sceptical about buying anything vauxhall, especially a corsa. I think just having no ICE and the added weight of batteries instantly makes a car feel smoother and more planted.

Although there's lots of hard plastics and the interior is less 'modern' than the 208,it all felt surprisingly well put together and simple to use.

I think a lot of the criticism levelled at the corsa e was based on the price but surely nobody pays anywhere near full price for one, ever.
 
Folding mirrors and birds :mad:
This one set my car alarm off numerous times at 5am this morning :mad:
Thankfully the car has a 'reduced guard' alarm mode so it shouldn't happen again. Also, can set the mirrors to not fold on lock as well.

51114404182_e7de24382c_b.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom