The Polestar 1: A Grand Tourer Misfire

As I sat down to drive the Polestar 1, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. This car was supposed to be a grand tourer, a vehicle that would transport me on long journeys in comfort and style. But as I put my foot down, something felt off. The engine didn't quite marry up with the rest of the car, leaving me with a jarring pause that made me feel like I was putting my foot down into a brick wall.

The noise from under the bonnet was akin to a dying ox, a mournful sound that seemed to scream "this is not right." And when I hit the open road, the ride quality was lacking. The suspension felt firm and unforgiving, bouncing me around over bumps like a car on a pogo stick. It was as if they had fitted springs made out of metal instead of actual springy material. This was not what I expected from a grand tourer.

In fact, the Polestar 1's hybrid powertrain seemed to be at odds with its role as a grand tourer. The electric-only range was decent, but it wasn't nearly enough to justify this car's place on the market. And when I tried to accelerate into a twisty road, the car's rear axle seemed to miscommunicate with the front axle, leaving me feeling like I was driving a car that didn't want to be driven.

But perhaps the biggest issue with the Polestar 1 is its lack of quietness at high speeds. I noticed a weird wind noise coming from up front, even when cruising at 70 miles per hour. It was as if there was a seal loose somewhere in the system. And while the car did have auto brakes, they didn't seem to be doing their job properly. The steering was relatively accurate, but it lacked any real feel through the wheel.

The Polestar 1's heavy weight made itself known in the corners, too. This wasn't a car that encouraged me to push it hard or take it on winding roads with enthusiasm. It was a car that seemed to say "no, no, no, don't do that." And as I drove around, I couldn't help but feel like I was stuck in neutral.

What should the Polestar 1 be? Is it a confused mess of a car that can't make up its mind about what it wants to be? Or is it something more sinister, a deliberate attempt by the manufacturer to confuse and disappoint customers? I'm not sure. But one thing's for sure: this car is not for me.

In fact, if I'm being brutally honest, the Polestar 1 is one of the most disappointing cars I've driven in a while. And it's not just me - I think there are plenty of other buyers out there who would be equally underwhelmed. So what should you do with this car? Avoid it at all costs.

But if you're looking for a reliable and comfortable company car, there are plenty of better options available. Audi, in particular, has a reputation for building solid, dependable cars that won't let you down. And at the price point of the Polestar 1, there's no reason to choose this over an Audi A5. In fact, I'd rather have an A5 from Volvos - it would be reasonably priced and actually desirable.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with me that the Polestar 1 is a misfire of a car? Or do you think there's something special about this vehicle that I'm missing? Let me know in the comments below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the pole star one now is it like the iphone 12 max in the way that it's super slick easy to use and very very fast or is it more like the original ipod where it's big clunky heavy and overpriced to find out i'm going to show you around some of this car's features i'm going to try and drift it in the snow and i'm going to launch it to see how quick it is from naught to 60 miles an hour now if you haven't done so already please make sure you subscribe to this channel because it's very very good if i do say so myself and hit the bell icon so you're notified whenever we make a new upload anyway i'm matt watson and you're watching car wow buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison sites we need to talk about the price because that's the thing with the paul starr one let's ask cameraman lewis how much he thinks this costs so lewis what do you reckon this costs 60 grand no small mate 80 more no it can't be over a hundred it costs a hundred and thirty nine thousand pounds it's a lot of money isn't it now if you wanna make sure that you're paying a fair price and you're not surprised by the price of a car like lewis was then you want to head to carway you can check out all the latest car deals there look at that there we go now put a little pop-out banner just up there should be in the top right hand corner of the screen if you click on that you can go there check out the deals right now if you want to do it later just simply google help me car wow and my team and i'll help you choose the right car for you and get it for a fair price for one of our trusted dealers let's talk about the design because that is what this pole star one is all about the main reason to have it the back is probably the least successful part it's fairly nice with the light design and you've got diffuser there it's carbon fiber and look exhaust pipes that are real as i'll illustrate with the car wow stick of truth thank god for that my only problem with the rear is that this large rear deck sort of reminds me of the back ends of those folding metal roof cars you know their bit bubbles at the back like the old c70 yeah you can't see that now let's move down the side because this is where it gets really oh what's your sexy i love it beautiful design down the side sorry about people by the way oh yeah really really nice swoopy roofline wide haunches 21-inch alloys which look great i like the side of this car the chrome really lifts it as well beautiful not sure about this though this sticker here is that supposed to come off is it looks like it should but i actually think that it's not intended to come off anyway look at these big gold brake calipers they look cool let's have a look at the front you can see that it's a volvo just by the front design sorry it's a pole star but it's done by the guys from volvo you've got thor hammer headlamps as well that you get on volvos not complaining though looks great from the front really really nice looking car let's check out the inside oh i can't do it here it's a left-hand drive car we've got to go round sorry about this professional as ever right the inside it is rather volvo like but that's not a problem what is the problem though is this silly coat i'm gonna have to take this off oh it's gonna be a faff because well the interior design may be volvo-ish it doesn't got volvo like space there with me a few moments later so it's like a volvo but it's nice it's very nice i like it quality is good leather everywhere feels expensive leather even down here all leather out can't tell if it's real or fake leather who cares it's nice in terms of quality i think it's not quite as nice as a bentley getting close to a porsche and probably more solid than aston martin the layout is good it's easy to operate everything your stereo control is there most of your functions are done through this touch screen which is very closed here you sit low so it feels sporty you've got a high dash that makes it feel sporty as well and these chairs oh oh god i could just like luxuriate in the lovely volvo sorry polstar do awesome awesome seats there's some decent practicality as well so look at this door bins they can take my flask of tea which is essential on a day like today we've got cup holders under here where i can put my non-alcoholic beer yeah under here though there's no space all the batteries are under here you've got usb ports there so you can connect your phone in your 12 volt as well and some area for coins in here there's a reasonable size glovebox and it is lined with felt so things don't rattle around in there let's talk about the infotainment system come on turn on so like that the way you turn the car on with this little knobby that you rotate also like this oh we have a glass gear selector you've got volvo's infotainment system which when it first came out was good but it's feeling a bit old now it's easy to use some of the icons are small though and if you use android auto on it you only get a small part of the screen it's a bit like watching a youtube video when you're in portrait mode the digital driver's display that's clear gives you all the information you need i'm fine with that you also get heads-up display as well best thing though about this car this glass roof is absolutely gorgeous i love it nice interior anyone who says oh it's like a volvo who cares it's nice oh there's even carbon fiber bits anyway let's check out the back seats because it is a two plus two coupe this could be interesting oh come on well it's stuck right so undo this right press this you might have noticed i've got this tripwire as well that i've got to navigate okay i've done it bring it back i'll go get my finger on it by the looks of it anyway out i think you can see the problem that's dangerous i don't think you can go in the back of this car if you're an adult i really don't maybe if you're a small child you'll be all right but i don't i don't want to do that i don't like that at all it's a bit of a shame because actually the knee room isn't atrocious it's not it's better than a porsche 911 but that is not good at all you do have isofix anchor points there so if you need to take some babies in the back you can do i'd rather have babies in the back i didn't really say that hopefully the editor will take it out anyway you've got 12 volt socket there shane there's no usb ports though in the back oh that is it's nice shiny bits anyway let's get out of here i don't want to go very far in the back of this let's just cut to the boot because this is dull as hell i thought i'd put my coat back on while we're at it so i don't freeze out here anyway boot so it's a bit annoying that you can only either open it on the key or a button inside of the car there's no release i don't think well i haven't found one here at the back so the boot has a capacity of 143 liters and i've put a moderate size look sack in there some random box in there and that's it pretty much full because you're going to want to carry your charging cables here which are in the posh bag but they do take up room not much space at all saving graces look at this this is cool isn't it you know how ferrari is like show off the engines in the engine bay well this pulse is showing off its electrical cables in the boot yeah it's not as good as a v8 electricity anyway the boot it's nicely lined but that's about it if you want to go grand touring and you want to take quite a bit of luggage with you to the south of france you're not gonna be able to fit much in there are you you're gonna be better off with a bentley continental gt because it's big capacity it's around 360 liters now if you want to check out my review of that copper link just up there popping out now if you can't see it there's a link below the video anyway click on those to watch the videos and that brings me up to five or nine things about the poll style one this is the polestar ones key it's so cheap and nasty looks like it's come out of a cracker this is not the key of a car that costs 140 000 pounds it's not even the key that you'd expect to find on a car that costs 40 000 pounds very snug in there and they said the console is very close and very hard and when you're maneuvering and turning the wheel around like that lots you can sometimes bang your elbow off it and it hurts i'll give you a quick reenactment as to what happened to me earlier you ready when you're maneuvering at low speeds the brakes make a weird creaking sound like this it's not good the reversing camera is positioned really low down and close to the road which means it soon gets covered in grime especially in conditions like this and it doesn't have one of those features like you even find something like a nissan juke where you'll have a little jet wash to clean it off which means that most of the time it's useless or you have to keep getting out to clean it by hand and then get back in and carry on parking if you buy this car you're going to have this sort of conversation with your friends hey do you like my new car yeah it looks really cool what is it it's a palm star one a pole star what's that it's a volvo that's made by the chinese and it's a hybrid oh a chinese volvo does that mean it's cheap actually it was 140 000 pounds 140 grand you know for that kind of money you could have had an aston martin db9 a bentley continental gto pretty much a porsche 911 turbo s don't you anyway what's it called again it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car there's loads of carbon fiber used throughout this car such as this member here in the boot in fact all the body panels are made out of carbon and that saves 230 kilos over making them out of steel pulsar says this car will do 470 miles per gallon and it emits just 13 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide obviously that does rely on you plugging it in regularly and most people probably won't and i didn't i actually ran this car without plugging it in at all yeah i still managed 37 miles per gallon which is actually all right and you can drive for quite a long while at that because it has a 60 liter fuel tank not many cars these days are that rare and built in really limited numbers but this sort of things only 1500 pole style ones will ever be built so it could could be collectible one day this pulse i want is undoubtedly expensive but if you can convince your company to buy you one as a company car you'll pay very little in benefiting kind tax on it because it's a hybrid and its emissions are so low so actually you'll end up paying just 2 223 pounds bik tax on it by comparison a kia seed diesel an entry-level version the bik on that would be 2547 pounds a year so that way it's a bargain unlike porsche and bentley polstar won't try and rinse you out with the options because this car comes fully loaded with kit for instance you get things like a bags and working stereo standard sounds epic you get automated cruise control with lane keeping assist in fact there's only one option available on this car and it's matte paint and that's four and a half grand now let's talk about the hybrid tech on this car so it has a 34 kilowatt hour battery pack which is pretty large for a plug-in hybrid though that does add to the way it means this car weighs over 2.3 tonnes still you get 77 miles of electric only driving capability apparently probably won't get that in reality but still that's the biggest of any plug-in hybrid and it can actually drive on electric power alone at speeds of up to 99 miles an hour why can't they just get that extra one miles an hour to tick that three-digit box in terms of charging it can actually charge quite quickly normally plug-in hybrids are really slow to charge but this is all right if you go to a fast charger you can charge from empty to 80 full in 40 minutes then there's a power element now before we talk about that i just want to point a few things out here under the bonnet look we've got adjustable olin's dampers though you do have to adjust them by hand which no one will probably ever do and look carbon fiber air intake lovely anyhow this engine it's a two liter with a supercharger and a turbo charger and it's mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox that drives the front wheels driving the back wheels are two electric motors and when you combine the output from the engine and what you can get from the motors combined you get 609 horsepower and a whopping 1000 newton meters of torque this pole style one's supposed to do not 60 in 4.2 seconds but let's see what it can do especially this time of gear up here let's boost build it here we go here we go oh oh the front wheels skip and again it's weird what do we get oh come on i can't see it i can't see it four point four seconds bit slower than they say but those front wheels are skipping right let's try again come on that's horrid oh no and it was slower four point five six all right i did it one more time this time i'm not gonna break boost it and see if it launches better so here we go come on third time lucky three two one still that weird skip then got time that was better 4.32 so not quite what polstar claimed but it is a bit slippery though still nowhere near the performance you can actually get for this kind of price point the thing is we've got a super coupee with over 600 horsepower it's four wheel drive but with two electric motors on the rear axle so tall vectoring and it's been developed by the guys at volvo who know a thing or two about driving on snow and i have a skid pan covered in snow this thing should be a right old laugh to drift around so i'm going to put it into power mode yes sporty driving for the win and then i'm going to turn the stability control off okay so i can't turn it all the way off i've only got a sports mode still should be fine right let's give it a go let's let's skid let's get in gear i have to pull it twice all right here we go come on then oh this is going to be awesome it's just killing the power i'm i'm sliding a bit but it's just sort of just driving around let's go again it's it's doing a lot of stability controlling i'm not allowed access to the full 600 horsepower it's not letting me i've got maybe 100 horsepower it is sliding a bit but the cos doing all the work i'm not doing anything here do you know what this feels like it feels like i'm in a rowing boat in a slight current and it's just taking me where he wants to take me and i'm really not really doing much in terms of controlling it i want to do massive big donuts and i can't i can't even spin it around look floret come on come on come on come on come on no no no no oh it did eventually look my foot is on the floor my foot is literally on the floor it won't give me 600 horsepower i bet this is looking pretty pathetic on the outside isn't it i'm bored of this board that's enough hooning around let's see what this car is like just for daily driving so i'm going to go into the drive mode and put it into pure so now electric mode only and it's rear-wheel drive it's what it's like it's quiet what's the acceleration like when you've just got electric i mean it's actually all right it's like a normal average car doesn't feel like a normal electric car say like the pulse star too in terms of acceleration because it's trying to shift so much weight but it's quick enough in electric power alone it's all right that do you know what else is interesting because you haven't got a really big engine up front you don't have a long bonnet so even though you sat low and the dash is quite high you can judge where the corners of the car are quite easily which is handy when you're driving around town the turning circle isn't too bad either so you can maneuver it all right and of course you've got surround view cameras and things like that it's all right to drive an electric power alone maybe it's it's faster something like a renault zoe i think so nippy but not quick but then you think women i just paid 140 grand for this i don't want to feel like a renault zoe so you go all right let's just go into hybrid mode and let the whole system figure out what it should do and then when you put your foot down it does take off there's a big wallop of torque when it all hooks up together the only problem is it's as though the front drive system with the petrol engine and the rear drive motors are communicating via a zoom call because there's some kind of like lag and delay and occasionally they talk over each other it's like they can't quite marry up it's not natural and there's a bit of a pause when you put your foot down for the engine to fire up and take off and then there's a like a moaning like like a dying ox from under the bonnet expecting a grand tour to have some like beautiful soundtrack from a v8 not here not at all in fact it makes not really want to put your foot down that's the problem with it another problem with it is the ride quality so in town the suspension just seems so firm it's like bounces and bangs and crashes over bumps it's as though they haven't fitted springs made out of metal they've made them out of wood sometimes in grand tours when you go quicker the suspension like smooths off but it doesn't ever seem to in this it's always like bouncing you around it's not really that comfy and you know it's supposed to be a grand tourer i don't feel like i want to go on a grand tour in it i really don't and in a way a plug-in hybrid doesn't make sense for a grand tourer yeah it's got a decent electric only range but really if you're crossing continents you'll get through that in a second and basically you've got a grand tourer with a two liter petrol engine just doesn't seem right i think this car is confused and the sort got it all wrong also with the grand tour you want to be quiet when you're just cruising and i've noticed a weird wind noise from just up there i don't know if there's a seal loose but it's like around 70 miles an hour but what is this car like when you're doing your grand tour and you reach a twisty road well i'm going to put it into power mode again for sporty driving but well at least it's got auto brakes i tried to accelerate into the car in front he wasn't allowing me to yeah we got the safety systems that's good but once again there's that kind of miscommunication between the front axle and the rear axle it just doesn't feel great it doesn't encourage you to put your foot down the steering is relatively accurate but you don't get any feel through it brakes are strong though and they don't have that weird grabby feeling that you sometimes get on plug-in hybrids as they transition from the regenerative effect to charging up the batteries to the actual friction brakes so that's good but they need to be good because this is heavy and you notice how heavy it is in the corners you really do it doesn't encourage you to chuck it about in fact you don't really want to be hooning through the corners like you might do something like a porsche 911 or an aston martin db9 or even a bentley continental gt or run rings around this i think i don't know what to make of it really i'm actually very late to drive this car and i've been looking forward to it for so so long and i'm totally underwhelmed i'm a little bit disappointed actually in fact if i'm brutally honest with you this is one of the most disappointing cars i've driven it in a while it really is sorry polestar at least you've got the pole star too and that's decent do you know what they should have done with this car they shouldn't have bothered with the pole star nonsense they should have just had it as a volvo equivalent to an audi a5 and dispense with the hybrid bollocks and just have it front wheel drive to save a load of cash people would love a cool looking volvo in this body shape and without all that electrical gubbins it'd be reasonably priced i mean an audi a5 is actually pretty decent value especially if you buy one through car well i mean i'll show you right a little link just up there popping out now if you click on that you can see how much you can actually save on an audi a53 car wire i'd rather have an a5 from this to be fair am i being me let me know what you think of this car in the comments below all right so then what's my final verdict on the pole star one should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should avoid the pole star one you know it might work for you if you're a company car driver with tax breaks otherwise there are loads of other better cars at this price point i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did please give it a like if you click on that video window there you can watch my review of the polestar 2. if you click down there you can watch me drag racing electric cars and if you click over there you can get a car wash so much money you can save on a new carthis is the pole star one now is it like the iphone 12 max in the way that it's super slick easy to use and very very fast or is it more like the original ipod where it's big clunky heavy and overpriced to find out i'm going to show you around some of this car's features i'm going to try and drift it in the snow and i'm going to launch it to see how quick it is from naught to 60 miles an hour now if you haven't done so already please make sure you subscribe to this channel because it's very very good if i do say so myself and hit the bell icon so you're notified whenever we make a new upload anyway i'm matt watson and you're watching car wow buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison sites we need to talk about the price because that's the thing with the paul starr one let's ask cameraman lewis how much he thinks this costs so lewis what do you reckon this costs 60 grand no small mate 80 more no it can't be over a hundred it costs a hundred and thirty nine thousand pounds it's a lot of money isn't it now if you wanna make sure that you're paying a fair price and you're not surprised by the price of a car like lewis was then you want to head to carway you can check out all the latest car deals there look at that there we go now put a little pop-out banner just up there should be in the top right hand corner of the screen if you click on that you can go there check out the deals right now if you want to do it later just simply google help me car wow and my team and i'll help you choose the right car for you and get it for a fair price for one of our trusted dealers let's talk about the design because that is what this pole star one is all about the main reason to have it the back is probably the least successful part it's fairly nice with the light design and you've got diffuser there it's carbon fiber and look exhaust pipes that are real as i'll illustrate with the car wow stick of truth thank god for that my only problem with the rear is that this large rear deck sort of reminds me of the back ends of those folding metal roof cars you know their bit bubbles at the back like the old c70 yeah you can't see that now let's move down the side because this is where it gets really oh what's your sexy i love it beautiful design down the side sorry about people by the way oh yeah really really nice swoopy roofline wide haunches 21-inch alloys which look great i like the side of this car the chrome really lifts it as well beautiful not sure about this though this sticker here is that supposed to come off is it looks like it should but i actually think that it's not intended to come off anyway look at these big gold brake calipers they look cool let's have a look at the front you can see that it's a volvo just by the front design sorry it's a pole star but it's done by the guys from volvo you've got thor hammer headlamps as well that you get on volvos not complaining though looks great from the front really really nice looking car let's check out the inside oh i can't do it here it's a left-hand drive car we've got to go round sorry about this professional as ever right the inside it is rather volvo like but that's not a problem what is the problem though is this silly coat i'm gonna have to take this off oh it's gonna be a faff because well the interior design may be volvo-ish it doesn't got volvo like space there with me a few moments later so it's like a volvo but it's nice it's very nice i like it quality is good leather everywhere feels expensive leather even down here all leather out can't tell if it's real or fake leather who cares it's nice in terms of quality i think it's not quite as nice as a bentley getting close to a porsche and probably more solid than aston martin the layout is good it's easy to operate everything your stereo control is there most of your functions are done through this touch screen which is very closed here you sit low so it feels sporty you've got a high dash that makes it feel sporty as well and these chairs oh oh god i could just like luxuriate in the lovely volvo sorry polstar do awesome awesome seats there's some decent practicality as well so look at this door bins they can take my flask of tea which is essential on a day like today we've got cup holders under here where i can put my non-alcoholic beer yeah under here though there's no space all the batteries are under here you've got usb ports there so you can connect your phone in your 12 volt as well and some area for coins in here there's a reasonable size glovebox and it is lined with felt so things don't rattle around in there let's talk about the infotainment system come on turn on so like that the way you turn the car on with this little knobby that you rotate also like this oh we have a glass gear selector you've got volvo's infotainment system which when it first came out was good but it's feeling a bit old now it's easy to use some of the icons are small though and if you use android auto on it you only get a small part of the screen it's a bit like watching a youtube video when you're in portrait mode the digital driver's display that's clear gives you all the information you need i'm fine with that you also get heads-up display as well best thing though about this car this glass roof is absolutely gorgeous i love it nice interior anyone who says oh it's like a volvo who cares it's nice oh there's even carbon fiber bits anyway let's check out the back seats because it is a two plus two coupe this could be interesting oh come on well it's stuck right so undo this right press this you might have noticed i've got this tripwire as well that i've got to navigate okay i've done it bring it back i'll go get my finger on it by the looks of it anyway out i think you can see the problem that's dangerous i don't think you can go in the back of this car if you're an adult i really don't maybe if you're a small child you'll be all right but i don't i don't want to do that i don't like that at all it's a bit of a shame because actually the knee room isn't atrocious it's not it's better than a porsche 911 but that is not good at all you do have isofix anchor points there so if you need to take some babies in the back you can do i'd rather have babies in the back i didn't really say that hopefully the editor will take it out anyway you've got 12 volt socket there shane there's no usb ports though in the back oh that is it's nice shiny bits anyway let's get out of here i don't want to go very far in the back of this let's just cut to the boot because this is dull as hell i thought i'd put my coat back on while we're at it so i don't freeze out here anyway boot so it's a bit annoying that you can only either open it on the key or a button inside of the car there's no release i don't think well i haven't found one here at the back so the boot has a capacity of 143 liters and i've put a moderate size look sack in there some random box in there and that's it pretty much full because you're going to want to carry your charging cables here which are in the posh bag but they do take up room not much space at all saving graces look at this this is cool isn't it you know how ferrari is like show off the engines in the engine bay well this pulse is showing off its electrical cables in the boot yeah it's not as good as a v8 electricity anyway the boot it's nicely lined but that's about it if you want to go grand touring and you want to take quite a bit of luggage with you to the south of france you're not gonna be able to fit much in there are you you're gonna be better off with a bentley continental gt because it's big capacity it's around 360 liters now if you want to check out my review of that copper link just up there popping out now if you can't see it there's a link below the video anyway click on those to watch the videos and that brings me up to five or nine things about the poll style one this is the polestar ones key it's so cheap and nasty looks like it's come out of a cracker this is not the key of a car that costs 140 000 pounds it's not even the key that you'd expect to find on a car that costs 40 000 pounds very snug in there and they said the console is very close and very hard and when you're maneuvering and turning the wheel around like that lots you can sometimes bang your elbow off it and it hurts i'll give you a quick reenactment as to what happened to me earlier you ready when you're maneuvering at low speeds the brakes make a weird creaking sound like this it's not good the reversing camera is positioned really low down and close to the road which means it soon gets covered in grime especially in conditions like this and it doesn't have one of those features like you even find something like a nissan juke where you'll have a little jet wash to clean it off which means that most of the time it's useless or you have to keep getting out to clean it by hand and then get back in and carry on parking if you buy this car you're going to have this sort of conversation with your friends hey do you like my new car yeah it looks really cool what is it it's a palm star one a pole star what's that it's a volvo that's made by the chinese and it's a hybrid oh a chinese volvo does that mean it's cheap actually it was 140 000 pounds 140 grand you know for that kind of money you could have had an aston martin db9 a bentley continental gto pretty much a porsche 911 turbo s don't you anyway what's it called again it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car there's loads of carbon fiber used throughout this car such as this member here in the boot in fact all the body panels are made out of carbon and that saves 230 kilos over making them out of steel pulsar says this car will do 470 miles per gallon and it emits just 13 grams per kilometer of carbon dioxide obviously that does rely on you plugging it in regularly and most people probably won't and i didn't i actually ran this car without plugging it in at all yeah i still managed 37 miles per gallon which is actually all right and you can drive for quite a long while at that because it has a 60 liter fuel tank not many cars these days are that rare and built in really limited numbers but this sort of things only 1500 pole style ones will ever be built so it could could be collectible one day this pulse i want is undoubtedly expensive but if you can convince your company to buy you one as a company car you'll pay very little in benefiting kind tax on it because it's a hybrid and its emissions are so low so actually you'll end up paying just 2 223 pounds bik tax on it by comparison a kia seed diesel an entry-level version the bik on that would be 2547 pounds a year so that way it's a bargain unlike porsche and bentley polstar won't try and rinse you out with the options because this car comes fully loaded with kit for instance you get things like a bags and working stereo standard sounds epic you get automated cruise control with lane keeping assist in fact there's only one option available on this car and it's matte paint and that's four and a half grand now let's talk about the hybrid tech on this car so it has a 34 kilowatt hour battery pack which is pretty large for a plug-in hybrid though that does add to the way it means this car weighs over 2.3 tonnes still you get 77 miles of electric only driving capability apparently probably won't get that in reality but still that's the biggest of any plug-in hybrid and it can actually drive on electric power alone at speeds of up to 99 miles an hour why can't they just get that extra one miles an hour to tick that three-digit box in terms of charging it can actually charge quite quickly normally plug-in hybrids are really slow to charge but this is all right if you go to a fast charger you can charge from empty to 80 full in 40 minutes then there's a power element now before we talk about that i just want to point a few things out here under the bonnet look we've got adjustable olin's dampers though you do have to adjust them by hand which no one will probably ever do and look carbon fiber air intake lovely anyhow this engine it's a two liter with a supercharger and a turbo charger and it's mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox that drives the front wheels driving the back wheels are two electric motors and when you combine the output from the engine and what you can get from the motors combined you get 609 horsepower and a whopping 1000 newton meters of torque this pole style one's supposed to do not 60 in 4.2 seconds but let's see what it can do especially this time of gear up here let's boost build it here we go here we go oh oh the front wheels skip and again it's weird what do we get oh come on i can't see it i can't see it four point four seconds bit slower than they say but those front wheels are skipping right let's try again come on that's horrid oh no and it was slower four point five six all right i did it one more time this time i'm not gonna break boost it and see if it launches better so here we go come on third time lucky three two one still that weird skip then got time that was better 4.32 so not quite what polstar claimed but it is a bit slippery though still nowhere near the performance you can actually get for this kind of price point the thing is we've got a super coupee with over 600 horsepower it's four wheel drive but with two electric motors on the rear axle so tall vectoring and it's been developed by the guys at volvo who know a thing or two about driving on snow and i have a skid pan covered in snow this thing should be a right old laugh to drift around so i'm going to put it into power mode yes sporty driving for the win and then i'm going to turn the stability control off okay so i can't turn it all the way off i've only got a sports mode still should be fine right let's give it a go let's let's skid let's get in gear i have to pull it twice all right here we go come on then oh this is going to be awesome it's just killing the power i'm i'm sliding a bit but it's just sort of just driving around let's go again it's it's doing a lot of stability controlling i'm not allowed access to the full 600 horsepower it's not letting me i've got maybe 100 horsepower it is sliding a bit but the cos doing all the work i'm not doing anything here do you know what this feels like it feels like i'm in a rowing boat in a slight current and it's just taking me where he wants to take me and i'm really not really doing much in terms of controlling it i want to do massive big donuts and i can't i can't even spin it around look floret come on come on come on come on come on no no no no oh it did eventually look my foot is on the floor my foot is literally on the floor it won't give me 600 horsepower i bet this is looking pretty pathetic on the outside isn't it i'm bored of this board that's enough hooning around let's see what this car is like just for daily driving so i'm going to go into the drive mode and put it into pure so now electric mode only and it's rear-wheel drive it's what it's like it's quiet what's the acceleration like when you've just got electric i mean it's actually all right it's like a normal average car doesn't feel like a normal electric car say like the pulse star too in terms of acceleration because it's trying to shift so much weight but it's quick enough in electric power alone it's all right that do you know what else is interesting because you haven't got a really big engine up front you don't have a long bonnet so even though you sat low and the dash is quite high you can judge where the corners of the car are quite easily which is handy when you're driving around town the turning circle isn't too bad either so you can maneuver it all right and of course you've got surround view cameras and things like that it's all right to drive an electric power alone maybe it's it's faster something like a renault zoe i think so nippy but not quick but then you think women i just paid 140 grand for this i don't want to feel like a renault zoe so you go all right let's just go into hybrid mode and let the whole system figure out what it should do and then when you put your foot down it does take off there's a big wallop of torque when it all hooks up together the only problem is it's as though the front drive system with the petrol engine and the rear drive motors are communicating via a zoom call because there's some kind of like lag and delay and occasionally they talk over each other it's like they can't quite marry up it's not natural and there's a bit of a pause when you put your foot down for the engine to fire up and take off and then there's a like a moaning like like a dying ox from under the bonnet expecting a grand tour to have some like beautiful soundtrack from a v8 not here not at all in fact it makes not really want to put your foot down that's the problem with it another problem with it is the ride quality so in town the suspension just seems so firm it's like bounces and bangs and crashes over bumps it's as though they haven't fitted springs made out of metal they've made them out of wood sometimes in grand tours when you go quicker the suspension like smooths off but it doesn't ever seem to in this it's always like bouncing you around it's not really that comfy and you know it's supposed to be a grand tourer i don't feel like i want to go on a grand tour in it i really don't and in a way a plug-in hybrid doesn't make sense for a grand tourer yeah it's got a decent electric only range but really if you're crossing continents you'll get through that in a second and basically you've got a grand tourer with a two liter petrol engine just doesn't seem right i think this car is confused and the sort got it all wrong also with the grand tour you want to be quiet when you're just cruising and i've noticed a weird wind noise from just up there i don't know if there's a seal loose but it's like around 70 miles an hour but what is this car like when you're doing your grand tour and you reach a twisty road well i'm going to put it into power mode again for sporty driving but well at least it's got auto brakes i tried to accelerate into the car in front he wasn't allowing me to yeah we got the safety systems that's good but once again there's that kind of miscommunication between the front axle and the rear axle it just doesn't feel great it doesn't encourage you to put your foot down the steering is relatively accurate but you don't get any feel through it brakes are strong though and they don't have that weird grabby feeling that you sometimes get on plug-in hybrids as they transition from the regenerative effect to charging up the batteries to the actual friction brakes so that's good but they need to be good because this is heavy and you notice how heavy it is in the corners you really do it doesn't encourage you to chuck it about in fact you don't really want to be hooning through the corners like you might do something like a porsche 911 or an aston martin db9 or even a bentley continental gt or run rings around this i think i don't know what to make of it really i'm actually very late to drive this car and i've been looking forward to it for so so long and i'm totally underwhelmed i'm a little bit disappointed actually in fact if i'm brutally honest with you this is one of the most disappointing cars i've driven it in a while it really is sorry polestar at least you've got the pole star too and that's decent do you know what they should have done with this car they shouldn't have bothered with the pole star nonsense they should have just had it as a volvo equivalent to an audi a5 and dispense with the hybrid bollocks and just have it front wheel drive to save a load of cash people would love a cool looking volvo in this body shape and without all that electrical gubbins it'd be reasonably priced i mean an audi a5 is actually pretty decent value especially if you buy one through car well i mean i'll show you right a little link just up there popping out now if you click on that you can see how much you can actually save on an audi a53 car wire i'd rather have an a5 from this to be fair am i being me let me know what you think of this car in the comments below all right so then what's my final verdict on the pole star one should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should avoid the pole star one you know it might work for you if you're a company car driver with tax breaks otherwise there are loads of other better cars at this price point i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did please give it a like if you click on that video window there you can watch my review of the polestar 2. if you click down there you can watch me drag racing electric cars and if you click over there you can get a car wash so much money you can save on a new car\n"