Have a new Polestar 2 in the driveway – here are the initial takeaways:
It is fast. And quick. And nimble. And powerful. Hit the gas and it moves. No lag at all. If you like to drive, electric is amazing.
The new audio/visual interface with Google Android is fantastic. The Google Maps which is on my phone now shows in the center display of my car. Game changer.
It is utterly bizarre opening up the hood and seeing… nothing! Just a small compartment to store stuff, with the washer fluid cap off on the side by itself. The rest of the car looks the same as an ICE vehicle. Under the hood is where it hits home!
But my biggest takeaway is this: when automotive electrification is discussed, you usually hear about the huge environmental positives about phasing out ICE cars, you hear about range anxiety and charging stations, you hear about disruption and change across the automotive industry, etc… You don’t hear nearly as much about the actual driving of the cars. I grew up loving cars and loving driving, and it took me less than one day to realize how much better the actual DRIVING is with an electric car.
I can’t imagine ever going back to an ICE vehicle. The acceleration is better with electric – fast, quick, ridiculously powerful. No lag at all. You hit the gas and the car is on its way in a hurry.
I don’t miss going to gas stations – I can fill up at home, or luckily at work. One less errand to have to do now.
I’ll have to see how the lighter car does in the snow, but if I find myself sliding more I’ll get snow tires. After all, weight does not matter as much as the tires themselves when you are driving in snow. I had a rear-wheel drive V8 Genesis a few years ago, which was basically a fast tank. With snow tires on it had no problem in the snow. But I took my snow tires off in early April and we of course had a late-season snowstorm, and I couldn’t even make it up the very gradual hill in front of my house. It ended up being a fast tank which was spectacularly useless in the snow.
So what’s left? People rhapsodize about the sounds of the ICE engine – the purr of a sports car or the throaty roar of a V8. I guess that is something to be missed, but I’ll take the quiet of an electric motor for everyday driving. The world these days is an endless cacophony of noise, so the peace of an electric motor is bliss.
The driving experience for the end user is simply better – that’s ultimately why there is an inexorable move to electrification.
