Review: Polestar 2

I was not prepared for the constant attention Polestar 2 demanded from other drivers. People craned out of car windows, and bikers pulled alongside at stoplights to ask what I was driving. The Polestar is an electric car created by a lot of ex-Volvo people in Sweden for the Chinese car multinational, which owns both of them and more besides. You may have heard of it, but it's weird to talk auto global manufacturing with complete strangers.

The Polestar 2 is aimed at the same part of the market where you can get an entry-luxury sedan for less than $40,000 after a federal tax credit. People in this segment expect their electric cars to be real working machines. It would have to be up for daily commute and grocery-getting on all sorts of roads, and take a few road trips on occasion. I took the new Polestar 2 down the Long Island Expressway to see how it coped with the roads that could double as movie sets.

It was made in China.

A recent history lesson. In 1999 Ford acquired Volvo for $6.5 billion, and in 2010 it was sold to Chinese company Geely for $1.6 billion. The cash and support for Volvo to turn itself around was infused with by the cash and support left by Geely after they left most of Volvo's design and engineering team in Sweden. The redesign of the XC90 was the result of a partnership between Robin Page and Thomas Ingenlath, the senior vice president of design at Volvo.

Ingenlath was the CEO of Polestar when it was spun off from Volvo into a separate brand. The Polestar 2 is built at a Volvo factory in Luqiao, China, along with the Volvo XC40 Recharge SUV, which shares its electric drivetrain and platform.

The Polestar 2 is focused on the Model 3. Both of these compact executive-class cars cost the same, and are nearly the same size. The Model 3's sheet metal flows in smooth, hilly curves, but the Polestar 2 is all sharp and straight. The Polestar has a nice touch that sets it apart from other five-door hatchbacks and sedans, and that is the Hofmeister kink, a forward angle in the glass near the rear-most pillar.

Initial impressions of the build quality of the Polestar are impressive. The fit-and-finish is solid, and the standard features list has some gems: heated power front seats, dual-zone automatic air conditioning, and touchless entry. The long hump floor between the seats where the center console and cupholders are feels extremely lightweight, and moderate pressure makes the flimsy plastic bend and flex. It doesn't affect the interior's function, but you will notice the cheap feel when you touch it. It is covered in the same soft-touch fabric that covers most of the interior's sturdy surfaces.