Polestar, a sports car joint venture between Volvo Car Group and its parent company Geely, hosted a test drive event at Farnborough airport in the UK and Strategy Analytics was invited to take part in order to experience first-hand the Polestar 2 electric vehicle sports sedan with its ADAS and SAE Level 2 autonomous functionality, Volvo Pilot Assist, as well as the embedded stock Android Automotive operating system that the vehicle comes with.
In the event, there was a mix of potential buyers, analysts and journalists and during the test drive one was able to test drive either the Polestar 1 which is the flagship hybrid vehicle of the Polestar brand or the Polestar 2 if one wishes to.
Entering the building, the Polestar event organizers were able to sign you in and check that everything is in order; one must hold a UK driving’s license and sign a couple of liability forms at the beginning of the event.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polestar team had to follow a number of strict actions in accordance to the current Government Guidelines and Public Health England in order to ensure customer and staff safety during the event. Social distancing was respected and the vehicles were thoroughly cleaned prior to each test drive following a strict cleaning procedure, which was then be issued with a post clean seal which can be seen in the exhibit below.
All attendees and personnel were required to wear a face covering during the event and test drives were unaccompanied within a convoy format. Only attendees from the same household were allowed to be on the same vehicle.
During the test drive, a Polestar drive specialist was leading the convoy, while the other vehicles were following behind. The whole experience with driving included lasted around 90 minutes.
The Polestar 2 Specifications
In the UK market, the Polestar vehicle comes with a handful of premium packages of sensors, electric motors, brakes, and a unique in-vehicle infotainment platform powered by Android Automotive from Google, Alphabet’s parent company.