Polestar: ‘Changing powertrains is getting easier’

The Polestar 2 used to be front-wheel drive in the base, but now has rear-wheel drive (as a Single Motor). We have already seen the same change at sister brand Volvo, with the XC40 and C40 Recharge. Those cars of course share their base and even if they are not on one dedicated EV platform, but there still turned out to be a lot of room for maneuver technically. According to Polestar’s Christian Samson, it is simply easier to make a U-turn with an electric car than with a conventionally powered car. Even if the car is basically not only intended for electric powertrains. “With a car with a combustion engine, you can’t just switch from a four-cylinder to a six-cylinder, that’s quite a drastic change. Because of the limited size of the technology (with EVs, ed.) That’s easier. We just have the rear subframe on the Polestar 2,” he explains AutoWeek.

The fact that Polestar, like Volvo, is now going for (basically) rear-wheel drive, mainly has to do with how the car drives with it. “It’s better to have rear-wheel drive for the steering feel. It reduces understeer and the car also steers more smoothly. Also the weight distribution is now more 50:50,” says Samson. The new electric motor also made it easier to place it in the back than with the old motor. That’s why it was possible now and it wasn’t ideal before. We will probably not see front-wheel drive on a Polestar at all. The Polestar 3 also gets a Single Motor version with the engine in the rear, Samson emphasizes once again.

The Swede thinks we will see more major powertrain updates in the future. Then he talks about much better batteries and other motors, which will not wait until a completely new generation of a model is introduced: “It is developing at such a speed that you cannot assume that the battery that you put in at the beginning is still competitive enough at the end of a model’s life. Just after the launch of a car you see a battery that you think ‘if only we had put it in’. with the engines, that may only improve by a few percent per update, but I certainly think you get a lot of updates during the life of a model. That also applies to the software.” According to Samson, the fact that the Polestar 2 is not yet on a basis specially intended for EVs made little difference. As mentioned, the rapid development of technology means that a possible lack of space will no longer arise quickly, according to him.