Why The 'Fastback' Polestar 2 Has An Oddly Tall Ride Height
The Polestar 2 isn’t an easy car to classify. Although it has a saloon-like three-box shape, it has a big hatchback boot opening. The electric vehicle also rides quite high, and has an elevated driving position, but doesn’t have a lofty ceiling like a crossover.
Polestar refers to it as a ‘fastback’, which is all well and good, but why does it sit tall like one of parent company Volvo’s Cross Country models? As explained to us during a Q&A session at the socially-distanced UK launch event for the car, there isn’t one reason.
The packaging constraints involved with having a load of battery cells under the floor are a factor, a problem Porsche solves with the Taycan using ‘foot garages’ - gaps in the pack to sit the occupants lower. The 2 has a similar feature, although this is only for passengers in the back.
Another consideration is - perhaps unexpectedly - the big hatchback boot. “Lowering the silhouette any more would have been impossible without having the hinge and the head of the person in harmony!” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath explained, adding, “Going for a big tailgate was a deliberate choice on having that great functionality and not going for the last centimetre in terms of height.”
Polestar wasn’t necessarily backed into a corner, however; the raised stance is partly a deliberate move to incorporate some of the things crossover buyers are into, without unleashing yet another SUV into the world.
“There are so many SUVs out there - an abundance really,” designer Maximilian Missoni said, adding, “This body style talks more to the responsibility aspect when it comes to aerodynamics, the silhouette, but it gives you the same or very similar properties [as an SUV]”.
The 2, Missoni claims, “gives you some of the presence and stance on the road that SUV owners like but in a more modern, more sleek, more sustainable context”. Polestar won’t be ignoring the SUV trend and its currently lucrative nature entirely, however. The ‘3’ - set to arrive in 2022 - will be a conventional crossover.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
It looks like a suv, so it’s one.
suvs are not defined by the ground clearance, but by their high shoulder/belt line
This has a relatively high shoulder/belt line, so it’s a suv.
So, is the Subaru Outback a SUV or a lift-up wagon?
Using the XC40 platform isn’t one of the reasons?
Lynk & Co saloon also uses CMA, so it is possible to use the platform to make something other than a crossover
Chinese car built by bought Volvo engineers. Nice, this is the end of Volvo, once all know how is drained they will certainly share Saab’s fate.
Eh, they will manage. Volvo has been Chinese owned for about 10 years now, and they are more successful than ever before. The first Chinese Volvo (1st gen V60/2nd gen S60) had a few issues here and there, but the other ones are brilliant. Saab killed itself with a multitude of terrible business decisions, like the joint venture with Subaru where they lost money on every single vehicle.
Nah, Saab got f**ed over by GM’s beancounters and their insistence on pissing on its brand identity.
I really dont think so. The difference between Volvo and Saab is a big one.. Volvo works smartly with a shared architecture and shared engines, which keeps cost low. Plus they have pretty much a free hand and are not restrained by some other big brand.
And how can anyone hate a new V90? Its so gorgeous and well made. (And yeah I too have troubles with the complicated engine concept etc - but any new car is like that, what you gonna do? Its the game today)
Because of these things Volvo does really well at the moment and will do so in the future - especially because of Polestar. In that department they are ahead of the pack and people are loving the new models so far - I dont see a big negative in Polestar. Would I love it more if it were made in Sweden? Yeah.. is a Tesla Model 3 better? Nah dont think so, Tesla abuses their employees in America. And somehow I have faith that Volvo/Polestar is a good guy brand that is fair to their employees and doesnt think 80 hour weeks are normal.