Life with a Polestar 4 reveals a disconnect between marketing numbers and daily reality, particularly regarding DC charging speeds. The report, based on 5,000 miles of driving, notes that the car has only needed a DC charge four times. While the car is rated to draw a peak 200kW, reaching the promised 30 minutes for a 10-80 percent charge has not happened.
The discrepancy appears regardless of the charger’s rated power. Tests on 150kW, 180kW, and 300kW units all resulted in a peak draw of about 125kW. The vehicle did not degrade much as the charge progressed, resulting in a 27-minute charge from 17 to 67 percent, or a gain of roughly 50 percent. One charge station sent a graph showing the peak power, which the driver noted is not widely publicized.
Most chargers will only deliver half their rated power if another car is connected to the other cable. Try to get one to yourself.
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Half a battery with my driving makes 150 miles. It was lunchtime so I didn’t mind the delay and the extra 150 miles was plenty. I’d set off full, so that one stop allows a 450-mile trip if there’s charging at the far end.
Even if each of those four charges had needed the full 10-80 and it had taken 15 minutes longer than it was supposed to, I’d only have lost an hour across five months, so I can live with it. That said, soon I’m driving to Spain so might be watching the clock more.
A bigger win is the Polestar’s ability to accept 22kW three-phase AC on its on-board charger. Lots of cars have 11kW but that’s not really much of an advantage.
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These 11kW cars are an artefact of the prevalence of three-phase in continental European houses. In Britain’s homes we mostly have just single-phase, so even a car with the possibility of 11kW (designed for 16 amps on three phases) will just draw 7.4kW when plugged into our 32 amp single-phase. An 11kW car on an 11kW charge post will be full in a third less time than on a 7.4kW post – not that much of an advantage.
But 22kW has real uses for someone like me who can’t charge at home. On a 22kW charging post it’s three times as quick as normal home charging. The Polestar’s socking great battery is five hours flat to full on 22kW. So I can get a useful boost on the post round the corner from me in a morning, an afternoon or an evening. Or if I’m away at a car park with 22kW charge posts, it happens while I do whatever I went there to do. Most usefully, those posts cost the same per kWh as 7.4kW public posts. Whereas DC can be up to twice as dear.
Oh I also have sockets in lamp posts in my street, but they deliver only 5kW, so a full charge on the Polestar would be all night and all day too. It’s a 94kWh battery and like all EVs you get 10 per cent charge loss, so you need 100kWh from near-flat to full, or 20 hours on the lamp post.
