Polestar 2: range, battery & charging

The entire Polestar 2 lineup received significant range boosts in 2023 thanks to new electric motors and bigger batteries for the Long Range variants. Having driven the updated car, we can say that while it can’t quite match the official 406-mile maximum range (one of the longest offered by any electric car on sale right now) quoted by the manufacturer, we did see well in excess of 300 miles on a charge. For less than £50,000, that’s undeniably impressive.

Polestar 2 range

Thanks to a 69kWh battery pack, even entry-level versions of the Polestar 2 are supposedly capable of up to 339 miles on a single charge – depending on their exact specification. All other models get a larger 82kWh unit, with Polestar quoting a huge 406-mile range for the Long Range Single Motor model, with Dual Motor cars lying somewhere in between the two.

We think these figures are a bit optimistic, though, as during our time with the Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor, we were only able to achieve 3.9 miles per kilowatt-hour. This translates to a range of around 320 miles which, while still impressive, is quite a bit down on Polestar’s lofty claim. 

In comparison, we were able to get 4.4 miles/kWh out of a pre-facelift Tesla Model 3 Long Range (374 miles), although that being said, our BMW i4 and Hyundai Ioniq 6 test cars only managed 3.3 miles/kWh (337 miles) and 3.2 miles (322 miles) respectively.

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Charge time

Charging at home from a standard 7.4kW wallbox will take over 12 hours for the larger of the two batteries, or just under 11 hours for the entry-level version. If your property has three-phase electricity, the Polestar 2 can take advantage of faster 11kW home charging, reducing those times to around seven and eight hours respectively for the smaller and larger batteries.

As part of the recent updates, the Standard Range Polestar 2 can now charge at up to 135kW, while the Long Range versions up this to 205kW. Polestar says it will take around half an hour to top-up each version from 10-80% using a suitably fast rapid or ultra-rapid charger.

All Polestar 2 models come as standard with a Type 2 charging cable, along with a three-pin home-charging cable. There's no official home wallbox as you'll find with some other manufacturers, but Polestar suggests Pod Point as its preferred supplier on its website.