2015 Audi S1 vs 2024 Polestar 2

What's the difference?

Spoilt. That's what we are. If you're in the market for a hot hatch, you can have your pick of German-built and French ones from as little as $27,000. There isn't a dud among them now that the VW Polo GTI has had a bit of an update and you can pick and choose your style. Audi's S1 is aiming to be king of the kids with its stiffly-priced S1.

Set the finances aside and consider for a moment what's on offer. As it turns out, a lot.

The Polestar 2 arrived to a warm welcome in Australia just a handful of years ago, as an outstanding electric car, and a worthy European-branded rival to the Tesla Model 3.

Despite this, there were a few things we wished the original car had. Some of these were reasonable. For example, we wished key safety items weren't optional. Others were decidedly less so, like, wouldn't it be great if it was rear-wheel drive?

Imagine our surprise when this new 2024 version was announced, with so many of our wishes, unreasonable and otherwise, catered for.

So is the new Polestar 2 the car it always should have been, or is it too good to be true? Plus, with a significant number of rivals - both cheaper and more expensive on its hands - does this Swedish-Chinese pioneer still make sense?

Read on to see what we found.