Polaris 2 test drive: the neglected seed player of new energy track

When the new energy era swept through, the attributes of electric vehicles were changed by technology. Scientific and technological elements such as intelligent driving and online interconnection have become new breakthroughs for many car companies and new gimmicks for marketing.

But behind these technological configurations and functions, the most important essence of electric vehicles is traffic. Driving experience and safety are its most basic foundations.

At present, the development of many new energy vehicles is putting the cart before the horse. In order to pursue the scientific and technological ability that others don't have or can't achieve, they put on the coat of science and technology to innovate. This concept is not completely wrong, but it must be based on the improvement of the basic attributes of the car. On the other hand, how to use cars to improve the basic attributes of cars should be the primary thinking direction of new energy vehicles.

Among many new energy brands, there is such a brand, which engraves the safety of technology interpretation into genes, and then uses technology to look forward to the future of the car, Polaris.

If you can't find the name Polaris, you may not know the brand at all, but it is promising. Polaris (English name: Polestar) was originally an independent sub-brand of Volvo, focusing on high-performance vehicles. Now it has turned to new energy sources in an all-round way, and launched Polaris 1 and Polaris 2, of which Polaris 2 is mainly aimed at Tesla Model 3.

Not long ago, the author test-drove Polaris 2 in Chongqing, which left a deep impression on me from the aspects of driving experience, workmanship and scientific and technological attributes. It can be said that Polaris 2 is a neglected seed player in the new energy track.

Maybe you haven't heard of the brand Polaris, but when you see the front face of Polaris 2, you will definitely think of the brand Volvo. Because, Raytheon's hammer is too recognizable in front of its headlight group.

In addition, although Polaris 2 is a pure electric new energy vehicle, it does not fundamentally cancel the design of the front grille, but reshapes this position through square elements, hiding millimeter-wave radar in it.

In order to assist driving intelligently, Polaris 2 is equipped with 15 radar and 5 cameras, including front millimeter wave radar and front camera, 4 panoramic cameras, 2 blind spot radars and 12 parking ultrasonic radar.

Many cameras provide Polaris 2 with a very comprehensive perception. Based on this, Polaris uses the power of science and technology to improve its intelligent assisted driving ability according to its own emphasis, and at the same time improves its safety. This is different from other new energy car companies, and the author will explain it later.

Polaris 2 adopts the design concept of Volvo Concept 40.2 as a whole, and its overall shape is biased towards cross-border style. In terms of body size, the length, width and height are 4606/ 1859/ 1479mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2735mm, so it is positioned as a compact pure electric vehicle.

The tail of Polaris 2 uses a penetrating taillight, which is a good combination of Volvo's traditional double "C" lighting design. The whole taillight consists of 288 LED bulbs, and the brightness of the whole taillight can be automatically adjusted, which is more environmentally friendly, brighter during the day and lower at night. In addition, the taillights can adjust different brightness according to the braking strength.

However, the author thinks that the tail of Polaris 2 is somewhat divorced from the style of the whole vehicle. Although the hatchback design can provide more head space and trunk storage space for the rear row, it looks a bit bloated.

In fact, Polaris 2 can completely adopt a coupe-type sliding back design similar to Porsche Taycan, which can be more attractive in overall appearance and enhance the sense of movement. Of course, the whole design style is still different.

Generally speaking, Polaris 2 car is not much different from the traditional fuel car in appearance, but it incorporates scientific and technological elements in many details. This is an attractive choice for users who want to buy a new energy vehicle but don't want a particularly radical design.

Walking into the car, Polaris 2 gives people a very delicate feeling. Different from other new energy brands that advocate minimalism, Polaris has well integrated the pursuit and detail control of traditional cars in its workmanship. On the other hand, it has also added scientific and technological elements.

First of all, Polaris 2 is equipped with a 1 1. 15-inch digital instrument panel, which can switch three modes of "concise", "vehicle" and "map" according to different needs of users, and display information such as vehicle speed, cruising range, remaining power and map according to users' needs.

In the process of driving, users can quickly obtain the required information just by glancing at the digital dashboard, which not only improves the efficiency, but also improves the driving safety.

In addition, the central control screen of Polaris 2 is 1 1 inch, which has become a semi-suspended design, which is quite different from Volvo's screen design that has remained unchanged for many years. Secondly, the two air drops in the middle are designed behind the central control screen, which is no longer placed on both sides of the screen like Volvo models.

As the world's first vehicle equipped with native Android car OS, Polar Star 2' s system interface design is intuitive and concise, easy to operate, easy to learn and use.

"Throw away the cradle of mobile phone" is an important indicator of Polaris 2' s in-vehicle digital experience. Polaris hopes to provide users with seamless switching from mobile phones to cars.

In terms of in-vehicle application development, Polaris 2 will use Huawei's application market to provide users with a large number of Android smart connected applications and fast applications to create a safe and reliable digital in-vehicle life. At the same time, Polaris 2 also supports OTA aerial upgrade, which will provide users with a common new user experience.

In the aspect of speech recognition, Polaris-2 adopts Iflytek's speech solution, which can support interrupt and fuzzy semantic recognition, and navigation, air conditioning adjustment and information query can be completed accurately and easily.

But Polaris 2 can't adjust the hardware in the car by voice, such as opening and closing windows. Polaris officials said that this restriction is mainly for security reasons.

Although the appearance of Polaris 2 shift lever is the same as Volvo at first glance, it actually adopts a hollow design. After the vehicle is powered on, there will be Polestar's Logo at the bottom, which looks very advanced and exquisite.

It is worth mentioning that the interior seat material of Polestar comes from the Weave Tech environmental protection material of diving suit, which embodies the environmental protection concept of Polestar without leather interior, and the actual feeling of riding on the spot is great.

No matter the sense of technology, design or details, the part of Polaris 2 in the cockpit is remarkable. It can not only meet your high standards of automobile work, but also stand out from similar competing products with minimalist technology. When you need a more advanced pure electric new energy vehicle, this exquisite detail design will definitely attract you more.

Having said so much about technical interpretation of security, where is Polaris 2? First of all, the headlights of Polaris 2 are a bright spot. In addition to the symbol of Raytheon's Hammer, the lower headlights also use the single-sided headlights of pixel lattice headlights, which are composed of 84 LED light sources arranged in three rows of lattice.

Compared with traditional headlights, advanced pixel dot-matrix LED technology can control the irradiation direction and angle of each light source more accurately and the irradiation range is more flexible.

Start Polaris 2 at night, and the pixel dot matrix LED headlights will give you a very ritualized lighting effect, and the lighting will be bright from the inside out.

During the driving process, Polaris 2 was detected by the front camera. When there is a vehicle in front or in the opposite direction, 84 LED point light sources can dynamically adjust the far and near light, and also dynamically adjust the lighting height and direction.

In fact, pixel dot matrix LED technology has been used by many models before, but it is generally carried on nearly one million luxury models. Polaris 2 is the first pure electric new energy vehicle with a price range below 300,000.

In practical use, glare interference to vehicles in the same or opposite direction can be avoided under the condition of illuminating the road ahead in the scene of car meeting and car following. Up to 5 vehicles can be identified at the same time, reducing the safety hazards of other drivers.

With the help of several radars, Polaris 2 also has a Pilot Assist navigation assistance system, which integrates map information and can predict the vehicle position more accurately when accelerating and decelerating. At 0- 130km/h, the driver will be provided with automatic acceleration, braking and steering assistance.

In addition to pilot assistance, how to avoid and mitigate possible accidents is the top priority of Polaris 2' s auxiliary driving system. Take the blind spot monitoring system as an example. The BSD blind spot monitoring system of Polaris 2 includes steering assistance function. In addition to the conventional warning lights and sounds, if the driver still tries to change lanes when there is a car in a blind spot, Polar Star 2 will automatically apply steering force to help the vehicle return to the driving lane safely, which can effectively avoid the risk of collision.

Driving assistance functions, such as AEB emergency braking system, LKA lane keeping system and Pilot Assist navigation assistance system, will always protect the safety of passengers and other road users in Polar Star 2 when driving at night.

In addition to driving on high-speed roads, entering and leaving parking spaces every day is also a scene of high accidents. Polaris 2 has an early warning system to reverse the lateral traffic flow with the aid of braking. When there is a blind spot when reversing, the radar behind the vehicle will monitor the sudden vehicle in real time. When the distance is too close, the vehicle will stop automatically instead of simply reminding. This function is rarely seen in other new energy vehicles at present.

Moreover, in terms of navigation, Polaris 2 also cooperated with Gaode Map to deeply customize the map application suitable for new energy vehicle users. In addition to the common intelligent path planning, celebrity voice and other functions, users can also synchronize the Gaode map account to realize the synchronization of mobile phone information and car machine.

Based on the cooperation between the two parties, the Gaode map on Polaris 2 is also equipped with new energy functions specially developed for pure electric vehicles. For example, the "power map" can accurately predict the arrival power, and can also prompt the driving path range according to the current power of the vehicle and real-time road condition information.

When the user sets a destination that exceeds the current cruising range, the "Power Smart Route Planning" can prompt the location where the power is exhausted according to the actual cruising range of the vehicle, and display the information of charging piles along the way, so that the user can select charging points and add route points with one click to realize worry-free travel.

Test drive at night, Gaode Map will automatically turn on the night mode to avoid disturbing users and make driving safer. In complex road sections, Gaode Map will automatically turn on the 3D real-life function, and the 8D magical Chongqing can't beat it!

Using the advantages of LCD instrument, the map information can also be directly placed on the instrument, and the driver does not need to move his sight to the central control panel in a large range, but only needs to move his sight up and down, which increases the guarantee for driving safety.

On the other hand, the driving experience of Polaris 2 is very close to that of a fuel car. It is like a fuel car, with high horsepower and self-priming, short-stroke hard shock absorption suspension, precise and stable steering, delicate and efficient braking.

Unlike the current Tesla Model 3, it is no longer possible to choose the power recovery strength. The driver can also predict the braking degree after the switch is lifted. Cyclists can't predict the powerful kinetic energy recovery braking ability at all, which makes it very prone to carsickness, and you can't find any side effects caused by car electrification on Polaris 2.

Nevertheless, Polaris 2 also has some exclusive driving pleasure of pure electric new energy, such as single pedal mode, kinetic energy recovery option and "ejection" mode. For example, when we test drive in Chongqing, this 8D city is very suitable for single pedal mode, and there is no need to step on the brakes. In actual driving operation, Polaris 2 is fully compatible with the different feelings of fuel vehicles and electric vehicles.

Finally, who is Polaris 2 suitable for? Or, who will buy Polaris 2?

First of all, I think Polaris 2 is not a typical pure electric new energy vehicle. In the design of appearance and interior, there is no particularly radical sign of pure electric new energy, but a moderately overtaking design between fuel vehicles and new energy. Secondly, Polaris 2 gives full play to Volvo's years of experience in building cars in terms of workmanship and detail control. For users who pursue the quality of vehicle workmanship, it has more advantages than other brands at the same level.

Secondly, Polaris 2 has also greatly improved its scientific and technological attributes, and it is much better than Polaris 1 in intelligent driving, in-vehicle system and interconnection function. It can compete with the current mainstream pure electric new energy vehicles, and its various auxiliary means in driving safety are less involved by other brands, which is very "Volvo".

Finally, Polaris 2 is closer to the traditional fuel car in driving experience. This is very friendly to many old drivers, and there will not be too much "subversion" in driving, which has played a very good role in the transition from fuel to pure electricity. After getting used to it, you can unlock more driving habits of pure electric new energy. (This article is the first titanium media App, photography, author /Kiwi)