Over the course of two full days of driving at an average temperature of 61 and 62 degrees, both Polestar 2s managed to travel nearly the exact same distance. The single-motor car went 289 miles, beating its EPA estimate by 19 miles or 7.0%, whereas the dual-motor car totally surprised with an extra 39 miles for a 288-mile total, beating the EPA number by 15.7%.
Yes, you read that right — the dual-motor car extracted no range penalty in our testing despite making a whopping 177 additional horsepower. Yeehaw!
So how much did those miles cost?
While the total range of a vehicle continues to dominate the EV conversation, energy consumption is an important factor as well. Energy consumption is what determines how much your miles will cost you. The unit of measurement for consumption, the kilowatt-hour, can be thought of as the EV equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. Just like gas, the price of electricity varies depending on where you live. For example, you'll pay about 10 cents per kWh in North Dakota as of this writing, whereas in Hawaii it'll run you about 38 cents.
So, what can Polestar owners expect to pay at "the pump"? After charging their battery packs back to full, we calculated an Edmunds consumption rate of 30.1 kWh/100 miles for the single-motor Polestar and, oddly, a slightly more efficient 29.3 kWh/100 miles for the dual-motor Polestar. Compared to their EPA consumption estimates, the single-motor was 2.9% more efficient than its EPA number of 31 kWh/100 miles, while the dual-motor was a whopping 22.9% more efficient than its estimate of 38 kWh/100 miles.
Comparing both cars in the states where electricity is currently the most and least expensive on average, this is how much we would've paid for a 280-mile trip.
Cost to go 280 miles in Hawaii
Single-motor Polestar 2: $32.02
Dual-motor Polestar 2: $31.18
Cost to go 280 miles in North Dakota
Single-motor Polestar 2: $8.43
Dual-motor Polestar: $8.20
With the consumption figures being so close to each other, it seems that on any given day in the same state, one Polestar could be marginally more expensive to charge than the other. The difference between charging in different states is much more interesting.
What if we compare the Polestars to their most efficient competition, the Tesla Model 3 and Model 3 Performance?
Cost to go 280 miles in Hawaii
Tesla Model 3 RWD: $26.60
Tesla Model 3 Performance AWD: $31.92
Cost to go 280 miles in North Dakota
Tesla Model 3 RWD: $7.00
Tesla Model 3 Performance AWD: $8.40
The base Model 3 is efficient enough to make a small difference in the most expensive state, but really only if you're doing quite a bit of driving. If we assume 10,000 miles of driving a year, which is unlikely on an island, that amounts to just a couple hundred dollars a year compared to the other three options here.