The New Polestar 2: More Juice, Less Weight, and a Sound System That’ll Hug Your Spine

Polestar 2 is back. And not just "refreshed brochure" back. We're talking James Bond-after-a-total-rebuild back. The Swedes have taken their electric liftback, sharpened the scalpel, binned the outdated Intel Atom like a week-old meatball, dropped in a Snapdragon brain, strapped on a 14-speaker audio arsenal, and fitted the lightest wheels they’ve ever dared to call alloys. Welcome to 2026. Or Mars. Same difference.

Let’s start with what really matters—not the motors (there are several, and they hum like an overfed house cat), but the brain. A brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon chip replaces the old Intel Atom, which was about as responsive as a decade-old laptop still running BitTorrent. The result? Screens smoother than silk and startup speeds faster than a Milanese barista on double espresso duty.

Now, the Bowers & Wilkins audio. A name that belongs more on the brass door handle of a Mayfair club than in your door panel. But here it is—14 speakers, complete with Tweeter-on-Top tech, Continuum cone drivers, and stainless steel mesh in the rear doors. This isn’t sound—it’s an acoustic massage.

Visually, we’ve got some subtle sci-fi: a new Dune body colour, a shimmering modern metallic that glints like desert dust in a Ridley Scott epic. And then there are the new 20-inch forged Performance wheels—lighter than your breakfast muesli and more aerodynamic than your neighbour’s excuses for not recycling.

And for those who want everything, there’s the Prime Pack. Think of it as the final page of a department store catalogue: a little bit of everything, all turned up to eleven. Pilot, Plus, Climate—you name it, it’s included. With rear window tint, obviously, because envy must be nurtured from across the street.

Technically speaking, it’s not a revolution, but a well-executed evolution. The Standard Range Single Motor version now gets a 70 kWh CATL battery, up from the previous 69 kWh LG unit. Is that a game-changer? Not really. But your WLTP range creeps from 546 km to 554 km. And if that doesn’t excite you, perhaps the thought of getting more distance while doing nothing at all will.