2021 Polestar 2 DC Fast Charge Test

Even with a software-limited maximum draw, the Polestar 2 charges up pretty well.

Polestar 2 DC Fast charge test

Tom Moloughney

By: Tom Moloughney

May 28, 2021 at 9:00am ET

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After finishing up our highway range test which saw the Polestar 2 going 226 miles at 70-mph, we had a totally drained battery when we arrived at an Electrify America station and a perfect opportunity to record the vehicle's DC fast charging capability. Which is exactly what we did.

The Polestar 2 has a 78 kWh battery, of which 75 kWh is usable. It has a peak DC fast charge rate of 150 kW, however, we didn't even break 100 kW in our test. I suspect that's because Polestar may have software-limited the charging rate for the cars they are currently loaning out.

It's been well documented that the Polestar 2, and its sibling the Volvo XC40 Recharge, have been experiencing communication issues on certain Electrify America charging stations, namely the ones made by Signet. I spoke to Polestar and Electrify America about this and have been informed that the issues will be resolved very soon.

Until then, I believe that Polestar may have updated its charging software and among other things, limited the DC fast charge rate to 100 kW. I know it's not just me because I spoke to a friend that also had a Polestar 2 loan and he also noticed the charge rate limited to 100 kW.

Polestar 2 DC Fast charge test

Bjorn Nyland recently posted a video in which he compares two DC fast charge sessions he recorded of Polestar 2s in Norway. He did this comparison because Polestar recently pushed out an update that was supposed to make the Polestar charge faster.

Bjorn's test shows that with the latest software, the Polestar 2 now reaches a maximum charge rate of nearly 150 kW, while the car he tested last year with the old software hit a maximum charge rate of 133 kW. However, the maximum charge rate doesn't tell the whole story. The car actually charged faster with the old software, even though the maximum charge rate was lower.

He recorded the times it took to charge from 10% to 90% and the car with the old software did it in just under 54 minutes while the car with the new software took 58 minutes.

Video highlights:

0:00 Intro
1:30 Software issues
3:12 Bjorn Nyland's Polestar experience
5:10 The charging session recording begins
5:50 43% SOC - 100 miles of range added
7:30 50% charged in 27 minutes
8:10 80% charged in 47 minutes
8:32 86% SOC - 200 miles of range added
8:40 Comparing the charging to Tesla Model 3 V3 Supercharging
9:05 Analyzing the session and comparing it to Bjorn Nyland's observations
11:17 Charging graphs
14:00 Wrapup

Polestar 2 DC Fast charge test

The strange thing is in our test the Polestar 2 took the exact same time - 58 minutes to charge from 10% to 90%, even though we saw a maximum charge rate of only 99 kW. The vehicle pulled just under 100 kW all the way from 0% to over 50% SOC and was still taking in almost 70 kW up to 75% SOC.

One of the things we always look at in our DC fast charge tests is how long it took us to replenish 100 and then 200 miles of driving range. In our test, it took the Polestar 2 twenty-one minutes to replenish 100 miles of range and fifty-six minutes to add back 200 miles. Twenty-one minutes to get 100 miles of range isn't bad, but nearly an hour to gain 200 miles isn't really good, especially when compared to some of the other EVs on the market today.

More DC fast charge tests

BMW iX3 DC Fast Charging Analysis: 150+ kW Peak, Decent Curve

How Fast Does The Volkswagen ID.4 Charge? Our DC Fast Charge Test Finds Out

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However, we can't help but think that we'll be able to get a better charging time for the Polestar 2 once we're using the current software. Therefore, we're going to request another vehicle loan to repeat this charging test once we know the charging issues have been resolved and the vehicle they loan us is on the latest software. Once we do that, we'll compare the results to this recording.

So check out the video and let us know what you think in the comment section below. Is there anything else you'd like us to test out the next time we get our hands on a Polestar 2?

Source: State Of Charge (YouTube)

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