Polestar 2.2

Was it really April 2024 when I reported on the stupid naming system that Polestar were to use on their model range?

Yes! 

According to their boss, Thomas Ingenlath, the Polestar 2 would be replaced with the Polestar n where

n = the next integer not already assigned to a Polestar.

I pointed out at the time, the folly of doing that. 

Just like in 2018 when I pointed out the folly of choosing Paddy McGuinness & Freddie Flintoff to present Top Gear.

I was proved correct.

Eventually.

Auto Express have this story today about the replacement for the Polestar 2.

It's headlined, "New Polestar 2 to lose SUV looks and embrace its sporty saloon side"

Apart from anything else, I don't think the Polestar 2 does look like an SUV - which is probably why I like it.

Anyway, I clicked on the link for their guess at what it would look like and found this:

Which made be think, "That doesn't look like a sporty saloon - where's the boot?"

Then I worked out that their link had taken me to a page of guesses or "renderings" that didn't actually include the new Polestar 2.  That particular picture was an attempt at what a future MG will look like.

Then I worked out that the picture at the top of the story was their guess: 

 

That doesn't look like it will "lose SUV looks and embrace its sporty saloon side."

 

It just looks like the current one - which already looks like a sporty non-SUV.

 

Which will probably be known as the 2 Mark II.

 

While the boss now appears to be known as Michael Lohscheller.

12345726

I was going to call this post "The Number's Up!" but I've already used that.

But I missed out the apostrophe which is unlike me and somewhat irritating.

Anyway, that particular post was about 18 months ago and berating the daft naming convention of Polestar.

It still seems to be a problem for them and they are trying to deny it - as reported by drive.co.au here.

And they have changed the rules a bit too.

18 months ago they said that the Polestar 2 would not be replaced by a Polestar 2.  Now they are saying that the Polestar 2 WILL be replaced by a Polestar 2.  Which will probably come after the Polestar 7 and before the Polestar 6.

Confusion reigns supreme.

I feel sorry for the new CEO, Michael Lohscheller, who didn't come up with the idea but seems to be spending lots of time defending it.

He likens it to Apple.  Which is wrong.  He should be likening it to the company I alluded to back in April last year - Renault.

When I also asked the question, "I wonder how many years it will be before they realise the error of this strategy and change to a better system."

Renault gradually and quietly replaced numbers with names and would never speak of them again.

Until they had a big hit with the new 4 and 5.

If they follow the Polestar numbering system, the next retro electric car will be a cute version of the Renault 7:

Oh dear - I think the number's up.

The Numbers Up!

No, this isn't a Volkswagen story - it's a Polestar story.

Their boss, Thomas Ingenlath, has been talking about the future.

Drive.com.au are reporting on it here.

When it comes time for a replacement, the Polestar 2...

...is not going to be replaced with another Polestar 2.

It will be replaced with the Polestar n 

where

n =

the next integer not already assigned to a Polestar.

And the rest of the range...

...will follow suit as their lifespans also come to an end.

Apparently this means that they aren't stuck forever with a car called the Polestar 2 never being able to evolve into anything other than an electric SUV that is actually more of a saloon car - which, incidentally is why I like it - it isn't, despite what Polestar tell you, an SUV.

I wonder how many years it will be before they realise the error of this strategy and change to a better system.

In 15 years time, people will be having conversations like...

• "I really fancy a Polestar 17"
• "Really? Why do you want a van?"
• "I don't! The 17 is a two-seater sports car."
• "I thought the sports car was the Polestar 19"

And in 45 years time, people will be having conversations like...

• "I really fancy a Polestar 102"
• "Really? Why do you want a van?"
• "I don't! The 102 is a two-seater sports car."
• "I thought the sports car was the Polestar 114"

Or maybe, just maybe, retro will be back in - and they'll do a cute new Polestar 2.

I wonder where that idea suddenly sprang in to my head from?

Pole-axed

Here is a Pole with a pole who got stopped by Polish Police:

The story is here. And here is a close-up:

It is apparently a Fiat Cinquecento - one with a knackered rear axle.  At least he's helpfully tied a hi-vis jacket to it so that you can't miss it.  Should have tried it with a Polestar.

Those wacky Poles eh?

You wouldn't catch anyone in Britain being that daft.

Would you?

He should have spread the carpet out - that would have hidden the boring SUV.

Infernal Combustion Engine

The new Honda Civic looks pretty spectacular:

That is going by Editor-in-Chief of Top Gear Mag, Charlie Turner's, comment that "...our cover story, where the battle for the hot-hatch heartland continues with the arrival of the fifth-generation Civic Type-R"

 

Ah, of course - it's the Type-R - that explains the spoiler.

 

Or maybe, while us subscribers to this fine magazine get our own covers, maybe we should also get our own welcome message from Mr.Turner.

 

In case you're wondering, that's an Aston-Martin Valkyrie not a Honda Civic.

 

Meanwhile, on Page 20 of the mag, we learn that Volvo's high-performance division, Polestar, will now be exclusively building electric cars.  Which is a shame.  But it also fits in with the big Volvo news from last week - Carmaker Volvo has said all new models will have an electric motor from 2019.

 

They were actually quite clever with their wording there.

 

My own car for example has several electric motors - at least one in each door.

 

They got the headlines though.  It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021 and a range of hybrid models.  But it will still be manufacturing earlier models that have only combustion engines.  And those hybrids will still have some carbon being ignited - so it is nothing more than an indication of the direction that the car industry is moving in.

 

Further illustrated by the story a day later that France is set to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.  No indication of what happens to internally combustion engined cars bought in France in December 2039 though - or those bought over the national borders that may get driven in to France.

 

I suppose they still have 22 and a half years to fine-tune the rules...

 

...and to come to some sort of agreement in Paris.  Probably not involving this foolish fossil...

who may well be personally adding to the world's fossil fuel stocks by then.