Unless someone has major underlying medical conditions or compromised health, as long as everyone is vaccinated I wouldn't worry. My father who is 88 with every major medical problem in the book caught it (thanks to someone visiting who was positive) earlier this year, he is vaccinated and boosted and rode it out fine. But it's still no fun catching it. Anyway, I look forward to next week so I can report on how well (or not well) my Polestar does on long trips

 

Trip to Southern Cal is back on next Wednesday. Notwithstanding anything unforeseen, it's do or die. I checked out the route using A better Route Planner, and if I leave with 100 percent charge, I will hit the super charger at Harris Ranch In Coalinga (144 miles) with 31 percent, I'll need 20 minutes to get to 80%, then I'll hit the second supercharger 90 miles away near Bakersfield with 32%. If I charge to 86 percent which will take around 25 minutes, I'll reach my destination with 10% remaining (153 miles). I'll probably hit a supercharger near my brothers house and go to about 70%, then plug in from his garage when I get there and bum some free electricity from him. I mean he owes it to me for all times I didn't beat him up

 

Here are the latest sales figures for the Polestar 2 for 2021/2022:



This doesn't include the 65K being purchased by Hertz, as well as the few thousand members on the Polestar forum that that have placed orders and are waiting for delivery. Not bad for an EV startup that doesn't really advertise or is well known (although the parent company Volvo is). Maybe one day Polestar can say to Tesla: "I drink your milkshake"!

 

4k units in April. Thats like a month worth of Teslas at my local delivery center

 

Actually that was March, not bad! Although they closed ordering in April due to too many orders, which may explain the slight down tick

 

Something interesting I learned on the Polestar forum, Polestar built their battery packs to be modular so that sections could be changed at a time. So if batteries have degraded on a section of the battery, that section could be changed out instead of having to swap out the whole battery pack. Not sure If Tesla does this or not





The batteries supplied to Polestar and Volvo are from LG Chem and CATL, they signed agreements with them in 2019 insuring they have enough supply

 

Tesla just replaces everything. I'm glad Polestar 2 has a way to lessen costs. The 4680 cells may be able to be replaced indivisudally. Will see during tear downs.

 

Tomorrow's trip day, and it looks like it's going to be a breeze:



Google maps shows two stops on the way, which I make anyways driving either my Lexus or my Sienna. This scenario is based on my current charge when I mapped this, which is 80 percent, but when I start tomorrow I'll actually be at 100 percent. Also the 8 hours is based on the time of day I mapped this, if I leave after 9am I will end up hitting SoCal traffic, which is famously, horrendously bad, so I will be starting my trip probably around 7:30 am, which will shave the travel time down to 7 hours. Of course this would be if current traffic conditions are good, no accidents, road closures or construction, which there has been a lot of on Interstate 5 lately.

On another note, I was able to get my hands on a decibel meter, and at 70 mph the cabin remained under 50 decibels. In fact the biggest spikes were due to my coughing. When I turn on the AC it goes up to around the 60 decibels when setting the fan on it's second lowest setting. Not bad, they have really insulated the cabin from wind and road noise. I'm going to run it again tomorrow as I will be hitting lots of bad roads

 

I made it to SoCal in my Polestar in one piece! And now that I've officially done a long distance trip (390 miles), I'm no longer an EV virgin. I have to admit that when I got in my car this morning to start the trip, I did have some anxiety, and was contemplating taking my Lexus instead, even though several EV owners who made this trip told me it's easy. I can now officially say...it was just as easy as if I had taken my Lexus or my Sienna, it took maybe 30 minutes more than it normally would have. But before I talk about anything else, let me talk about the Polestar, which I got a chance to put through its paces on several types of roads, and conditions.

The first thing I want to say is its a solidly built vehicle. I drove it through all kinds of roads and highways, including through mountain passes with steep inclines, heavy gusty winds, and temps in the 90's. The car was so well planted, even on the curviest of roads. The car was quiet, even on rough roads and at speeds up to 100 mph. Power was so instant, you just put your foot down with zero wait or hesitation. There was an instance I was going up a steep incline and I had to quickly get around a truck, from 60 to 100 was so quick it shocked me. I've driven several cars over the years between NorCal and SoCal (which I won't name) and this is by far the best car I've driven as far as ride quality, and instant power output, and lack of NVH. As far as efficiency, this puts a Prius to shame, beating the EPA's MPG rating as shown in the screen grab below:



At a steady 75 MPH, I was averaging 32.4 kWh per 100 miles. To put that in perspective, a gallon of gasoline contains 33.7 Kwh of energy if converted to electricity. If my Polestar was powered by gasoline, I would be above the 100 mpg mark. Think about it, a 408 hp car getting better than 100 mpg.

Now I want to talk about the charging experience, which a lot of people are worried about. I can confidently say that I had zero issues with charging. The way it works for longer trips is the built in Google maps will automatically map out chargers along your route, and recommend the minimum charge percent you need to safely get to your destination, and it will automatically calculate a safe buffer. For example, it added 2 charging stops, the first one was a 15 minute stop at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California:





There were plenty of available chargers (both 350kW and 150kW) and every one of them worked. None were broken. None. I just thought I would make that clear. I went to the bathroom, stretched my legs, grabbed a coffee and in 20 minutes I was on my way. The second charging station I was routed to was in Bakersfield, CA:





There were both 350kW and 150kW chargers available, and they all worked. Here I did a 30 minute charge. I grabbed a Bean Burrito from Taco bell, stretched my legs, used the bathroom and was on my way. This was my last stop, Google maps estimated I would reach my brothers house 3 hours away at 16 percent charge left, but that estimate went up to 26 percent. I was a little worried about hitting the Grapevines, which is a very steep incline through a mountain pass, but what comes up, must come down, so I ended up regenerating what I lost on the 5 percent incline.

This trip was my final test of EV ownership, and has cemented it. I had zero issues driving the 390 miles, zero issues charging, and I ended up making the exact same number of stops as I usually do when driving one of my other cars. It maybe took 30 minutes longer than my last trip, but it ended up costing me $6.45 in electricity instead of $100 in gas


I've totally made up my mind, I'm never going back to ICE, and it's not just about the savings, but all the other things I've mentioned previously. Although I'll take the savings!

 

Congratulations. Road tripping an EV is great...and I love getting near 100mpg with a 500hp rocket. I bet you passed a bunch of cars going uphill on the grapevine...i blast that at 85mph because most cars have trouble climbing it. EV torque just flattens hills. Did you use the 350kw chargers? Were you able to get above 150kw of charge rate?

Also, the i5 is a nightmare in terms of rocks from trucks. I have PPF on my front but still worry about a stray rock destroying my windshield.

I think its time to let go of your IS350...

 

Oh yeah, the Grapevine is piece of cake. It might as well be downhill LOL. There was a giant RAM truck behind me on the incline who was trying to get around people, when he came up behind me, I left him so far behind he disappeared LOL.

Unfortunately there is an issue with the Polestar and EA's 350kW chargers, I couldn't get faster than 97kW. EA said it's a software issue between their chargers and Polestar and said Polestar will fix it with a software update. BTW, Tesla is building a massive, and I mean massive charging area right next to Harris Ranch. It looks like they are adding close to 100 chargers!

And yes, I think it's time to move on from the IS350....

 

Yeah..trucks are slow and hard to maneuver through traffic. A lot of them try though Some try to mess with EVs too but a couple sprints away and they give up. They hit some sort of aerodynamic limit around 100mph...i get train lengths away at those speeds.

The Harris ranch Supercharger is going to be the biggest in North America. All V3 250kw stations too. I'm hoping they put in a Starbucks there

 

It's massive, almost looks like a graveyard with all the chargers looking like tombstones lol! You guys are lucky, more chargers than gas pumps! There will never be lack of charging for Tesla's for sure. I was talking to another EV owner with a license plate "EV'S Forever" about it....it started out "did you see those Tesla charging stations being built?" We were discussing why other automakers don't invest in infrastructure like Tesla

 

I just read yesterday that Barstow, CA will lay claim to the largest Supercharger in the nation, ~100 stalls and most likely all V3, right between LA and Vegas.

 

I didn't know that. I hope it has a Starbucks