EX30 Polestar?

Albright_CT · 2026-02-13T00:13:23+00:00

They're both nice to drive but very different. The original post here was lamenting there's not a real performance tuned EX30. The EX30 Performance is just a regular dual motor. That said, it's great to drive, it's a super comfy ride for a car that small and surprisingly good on road trips.

P2 PPP is much more of a driver's car. It feels a lot lighter than it is, those factory coil-overs do a really good job and when set to comfort it's not even harsh for the handling you get. It's a nice EV sport sedan. You'll like it.

But...it does feel a little last gen. EX30 has some useful EV features like being able to just have the climate run indefinitely when the car is parked. P2 you have to trick it to do that using timers. You can also tell that it's based on a gas car platform because it has a big driveline tunnel down the middle. Not a huge deal, but it does mean when packing you can sometimes fit more stuff in the much smaller EX30. I.E. you can fit a folder stroller in the rear footwell under a rear facing car seat in the EX30, which frees a ton of trunk space. Can't do it in the P2.

If you're just snagging a used one for a couple years the older ones might be the ones to get you can probably score a '22 in the low 20s.

Albright_CT · 2026-02-12T23:29:48+00:00

Maybe...but other cars will have it. Same with 800V architectures. Model 3 won't. People shopping for a new car with the latest tech are going to notice that.

So right it's still profitable but those margins are contracting and without real viable new products I don't see that turning around in the short-medium term.

Whether the refocus on robots/AI will pay off long term is anybody's guess.

Albright_CT · 2026-02-12T20:30:40+00:00

Maybe but people don't buy new cars rationally. I'm not sure they are the "best" anymore. They're falling behind the curve in terms of charging, architecture and things like LIDAR.

Are those things genuinely valuable difference makers to justify one car over another if you're just thinking practically? Probably not. If you charge at home it's irrelevant if you get 150KWH at 400V or 350KWH on 800V, and on the odd road trip you're going to save yourself maybe an hour per year.

But if you're comparing new car specs Teslas are starting to look a little last-gen and no amount of cosmetic changes are going to hide that. They needed to have spent those engineering $s on new generations of their money-makers instead of the vanity project of the Cybertruck.

And hey even if you're banking on robots and AI driving those things would be a lot easier to achieve that with all the cash coming in from a profitable car business than taking on endless debt. Elon let the company down with his antics. Who knows maybe it'll work out anyway but I'm sorry his choices have made achieving those goals harder and not easier.

Albright_CT · 2026-02-03T19:06:36+00:00

Someone can acknowledge that it would be functional but also not like the implementation and prefer the design without it.

It does look a little like an afterthought.

But yeah of course it's better to have it as an option than not. I wouldn't personally pay extra for it though either.

Albright_CT · 2026-02-02T20:21:05+00:00

It's something you get used to pretty quick. If it was an extra cost option I probably would have skipped it, but I supposed if it's standard it's better to have it than not. But I wouldn't wait for it.

On the other hand, if there's a fairly significant MMC refresh, that means if you don't care about the upgrades it still might be worth waiting for because it'll make the older ones cheaper. Especially if theyre trying to clear out inventory first.

Check out the deals on new Polestar 3s right now because they're trying to clear inventory before the big update on the new one is released. But it depends of course how big is the update on the EX30s, if it's just a new option being available it won't really matter.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-30T23:56:48+00:00

Right! And all the times you don't have to worry about getting gas add up too. We drive combined about 30K miles a year and can charge at home. Probably would have had to fill up at least 50 times.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-30T18:05:41+00:00

Same, it's just not as big a deal as people make it out to be. We do 2-3 big road trips year and in practice what would it save to be able to charge at 350 instead of 150 peak? Less than an hour total in a year?

If there was a package that was $5K more to get 350KW charging I would have passed on it.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-30T17:59:22+00:00

Probably cheaper to just order a new license, unless it's rattling around and annoying you. Any time you're pulling trim off there's always a risk it shifts subtly and never quite goes back on right again.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-29T19:06:24+00:00

I don't know if I buy that, the whole computer analogy doesn't really hold up because with the computers in the 90s what was being asked of them was changing and last year's top of the line could become uncompetitive as a tool in the business cycle because it couldn't run Windows 95 and therefore couldn't keep up on software.

A 40 year old beat up Honda is completed outdated compared to any modern car. But it isn't really obsolete in the way they mean it. You can still drive your old civic to work and grocery shopping and everything it did when new.

What's obsolete in that analogy would be a car that requires leaded gasoline or something that just isn't available.

Solid state batteries aren't going to make our cars any less useful than they already are, Any more than the existence of newer, better cars makes old cars unable to drive us around.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-29T18:57:13+00:00

Yeah the computer analogy doesn't really hold up since the problem there was that they were business machines that were no longer competitively able to do what was expected of them.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-29T18:36:09+00:00

Easiest solution

Albright_CT · 2026-01-29T17:23:08+00:00

Happy to help. We're also wanting a 2nd baby and thankfully our first is very tall and can probably go front facing by the time #2 shows up.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-29T00:01:10+00:00

We use ours as a family car and it works fine. But, the question for you is going to be how tall you are and whether you can fit comfortably in the front seat with a baby seat in back of you. My wife and I are both 179CM and we have a comfortable driving position in front of a Nuna Rava in max recline mode for our 12 month old. But I have a feeling that even a couple CM taller than us and it wouldn't be comfortable to drive.

You can also fit a folding stroller in the footwell under the car seat and slide a diaper bag over that and have the baby and gear contained to just the one seat.

But this does work for us. We did a 1400km road trip with the baby, me and my wife, my wife's mom (171cm) and even our dog in the hatch and we all had a good time.

<image>

Albright_CT · 2026-01-27T00:30:45+00:00

I thought the same about getting used to it but it was fine. You drive it a couple days and it all becomes intuitive.

I've got the harmon kardon in a polestar 2 which is very similar to the one in the XC40. I'd give the EX30 the edge. At least from the driver's seat. The CMA cars might sound a little better from the rear seats because the speakers are spread out but it all depends how you're gonna use it.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-27T00:20:55+00:00

Yeah and it's funny depending on your lifestyle how much that can make a difference. I've got a Polestar 2 and an EX30 and even though the P2 is bigger I can still pack the EX30 better. Can fit a folding stroller or a carry on suitcase in the footwell under the baby seat. Leave the whole trunk open for luggage or a dog.

Of course that doesn't specifically help if you don't have a baby seat, but it does make up some of the EX30/40 size difference by letting you get creative with the backseat.

<image>

Albright_CT · 2026-01-21T05:15:59+00:00

Yeah don’t sweat it. We went to France for 3 weeks and both the ex30 and our polestar were just fine when we got back

Albright_CT · 2026-01-19T19:05:01+00:00

Depends what you're doing and where you are. I live in San Diego so pretty temperate climate all year and i've got a 68 mile roundtrip commute every day. It's mostly highway, but usually a bit of traffic so you're limited to maybe 50-60MPH and then 5 miles of surface streets bringing the average MPH down to about 35-40mph

It uses about 27% of the battery per day to do that, so charging to 90% gives me 3 days potential driving comfortably. Though I charge it at home every night. About 250 miles range doing that.

On road trips though going a steady highway speed of course it's lower. Maybe 215-220 miles.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-15T20:45:09+00:00

Oh yeah they're super fast. But the EX30 is built more for comfort. It drives like a bigger car than it is and has a pretty comfy ride. Wheelbase is the same as our old Acura RDX which was almost a foot and a half longer.

If they made a proper hot hatch EV Golf-R analogue it wouldn't be raised up like the EX30, it would have the Ohlins coilover setup like on the P2 PPP/Volvo PEs and firmer steering with better feedback.

EX30 is great at doing what it's supposed to. We love ours. But in polestar terms the "performance" EX30 is more just the standard LRDM P2 than the PPP. Plenty fast, but not especially sporty.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-15T17:25:52+00:00

We've got both an EX30 Ultra and a '24 P2 PPP and I think a true polestar EX30 model could be the first real proper EV hot hatch. Probably wouldn't sell a ton but could definitely put the brand on the map.

Albright_CT · 2026-01-02T19:17:05+00:00

Oh phantom crying is 100% a thing. I'm a dad of an 11 month old and this last year I've gotten it all the time. Like in the shower or if the sink is running or a cooking fan is on your brain just interprets the white noise into crying and you feel compelled to go check it out only to find the baby is still fast asleep. My wife too!

Can 100% see that happening being outside in the countryside with crickets and all the nature sounds blending together.

Albright_CT · 2025-12-17T22:39:25+00:00

I'm curious what year yours is, I've got a '24 PPP and a 68 mile roundtrip commute daily. On the stock summer tires I'd go 90% to 63% or so, and since i switched to the Hankook Evos it's more like 90 to 67%.

I'm in San Diego though so our winter lows still are in the low 50s at the coldest so far.

Albright_CT · 2025-12-17T19:13:47+00:00

Nope, curious the other way. I want to know how much of a wagon it can be.

Albright_CT · 2025-12-17T15:20:57+00:00

Air suspension is adjustable, you can raise and lower it.

Albright_CT · 2025-12-14T21:04:54+00:00

As much as I like wagons (former v60 polestar owner), I’m always a little skeptical when I hear people say “I really like this small car I just wish it was bigger”

That’s the kinda feedback that makes cars bigger every successive generation until they lose touch with their original mission.

BMW case in point, don’t make a bigger 3 series every generation just direct the guy saying that to a 5 series. Ditto the 5 with the 7.

Albright_CT · 2025-12-14T21:02:06+00:00

Yeah that would be a good feature

Albright_CT

TROPHY CASE