Continuing his exploration of the Polestar 2 lineup, Bjørn Nyland recently range tested the top-of-the-line version of the car - Long Range Dual Motor with Performance Pack - in cold weather.

This new 2021 Polestar 2 is equipped with a heat pump, as well as the latest vP1.7 software. The battery pack capacity is about 78 kWh and according to Bjørn, 74.4 kWh is usable.

With 20" winter tires, and at 0°C, the sporty Polestar 2 was able to achieve about 346 km (215 miles) at a constant speed of 90 km/h (56 mph). The energy consumption was quite high at 215 Wh/km (346 Wh/mile).

If the speedgoes up to 120 km/h (75 mph), then the range drops to 280 km (174 miles) due to energy consumption of 266 Wh/km (428 Wh/mile).

Bjørn Nyland's range test runs until 0%, 0 km, ---, or equivalent appear on the display as he does not expect that regular drivers would go beyond "zero". The cars still have some reserve at that point.

Another interesting finding is that the car appears to use some 3.2 kW for battery pre-heating when a fast charger is set as the destination. The value was determined from energy consumption in two cases - when navigating and not navigating to a fast charger.

2021 Polestar 2 Performance Pack [Winter]

Results at 90 km/h (56 mph)

  • range of 346 km (215 miles)
  • energy consumption of 215 Wh/km (346 Wh/mile)
  • used battery capacity: 74.4 kWh (estimated)
  • temperature of 0°C
  • 20" Michelin X-Ice Snow (245/40-20)

Results at 120 km/h (75 mph); up 33% compared to 90 km/h:

  • range of 280 km (174 miles); down 19%
  • energy consumption of 266 Wh/km (428 Wh/mile); up 24%
  • used battery capacity: 74.4 kWh (estimated)
  • temperature of 0°C
  • 20" Michelin X-Ice Snow (245/40-20)

The results are not impressive and Bjørn Nyland notes that he does not find any significant impact of having a heat pump on board, as the range results are actually lower than in the previous version of the car. We guess that he wanted to see a double-digit percentage improvement in range.

We could only note that the tested Polestar 2 has 20" wheels compared to 19" in a previous version, and the temperature was a bit lower. Those differences might be worth a few percent of range, but should be compensated for by the heat pump.

2020 Polestar 2 [Winter]

Results at 90 km/h (56 mph)

  • range of 366 km (227 miles)
  • energy consumption of 203 Wh/km (327 Wh/mile)
  • used battery capacity: 74.4 kWh (estimated)
  • temperature of 4°C
  • 19" Continental VC7 (245/45-19)

Here is the video from the previous test of a car after it was estimated that the manufacturer unlocked about 2 kWh of energy capacity:

An interesting thing is that the top-of-the-line version, despite having 78 kWh battery, notes only slightly better range than the entry-level version (of course wheels and Performance Pack plays its role here). Anyway, don't count for significantly better result in the Bjørn's 1,000 km challenge.

2021 Polestar 2 SR SM [Winter]

Results at 90 km/h (56 mph)

  • range of 333 km (207 miles)
  • energy consumption of 176 Wh/km (283 Wh/mile)
  • used battery capacity: 58.6 kWh (estimated)
  • temperature of 1°C
  • 19" Continental VC7 (245/45-19)

Results at 120 km/h (75 mph); up 33% compared to 90 km/h:

  • range of 242 km (150 miles); down 27%
  • energy consumption of 242 Wh/km (389 Wh/mile); up 38%
  • used battery capacity: 58.6 kWh (estimated)
  • temperature of -1°C
  • 19" Continental VC7 (245/45-19)

See all the available versions of the Polestar 2 in Europe here.

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