Polestar 2
The Polestar 2 is a battery electric 5-door liftback produced by the Chinese automaker Volvo under its Polestar sub-brand. Based on the CMA platform, production began in March 2020 at the Luqiao CMA Super Factory in Luqiao, China. Development. The concept car that precedes its design was called the Volvo Concept 40.2. It was designed by Thomas Ingenlath alongside the Volvo Concept 40.1, which later became the basis of the XC40. These two concept cars were both unveiled in 2016. However, Volvo decided to shift their focus to small crossovers later that year. Therefore, Polestar picked  the 40.2 as the basis for their Polestar 2 design. Volvo's exterior design chief Maximilian Missoni tweaked the car's taillights, grille, and wheels in order to differentiate it as a standalone vehicle. The Polestar 2 is also the first car with Google's Android Automotive operating system built in. Polestar 2 is the second car under the Polestar brand after the Polestar 1. Polestar 1 is however a plug-in hybrid and limited production vehicle, making the Polestar 2 the first BEV and mass production Polestar vehicle in the Volvo Car Group. The production version was officially unveiled  on 27 February 2019 during an internet livestream and made its first public appearance at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show that month. The car has a starting suggested retail price of US$49,900 as of October, 2021. For the 2022 model year, Polestar announced that additional options would be available for the Polestar 2. Safety. The Polestar 2 is designed to protect the battery pack during an impact and automatically disconnect it after a collision. On both front ends a SPOC (Severe Partial Overlap Crash) block is attached to mitigate the crash forces and prevent any material entering the occupant  compartment. The Polestar 2 also features a centre airbag to protect from far-side impacts. The Polestar 2 obtained a 5-star 2021 Euro NCAP rating with a 92% score for protection of adults, 89% for protection of children, 80% for protection of vulnerable road users and 86% for safety assist. Recall. In October 2020, Polestar issued a recall on all Polestar 2 models due to a software defect that caused loss of power to the vehicle whilst driving. As the vehicles were not capable of OTA software updates it required all of the vehicles to be recalled to a  service centre for a manual software update. Later the same month a second recall was issued due to faulty inverters. Specifications. Environment. Using the ISO 14044 method, Polestar 2 has lower life-cycle emissions than the XC40 when driving more than 35 to 80 thousand kilometers, depending on conditions.