2024 Polestar 2 vs 2022 Volvo XC40

What's the difference?

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.

Volvo’s brand renaissance is a gift that keeps on giving.

The Swede alternative to more mainstream European premium players needs to keep offering something different to survive and has thus far found success in giving buyers design-focused alternatives to the strong performance lineage of its predominantly German rivals.

Like its rivals, though, Volvo is facing a once-in-a-generation conversion from combustion to electrification, and thanks to its Chinese parent company, Geely, it is uniquely positioned to rapidly make the switch.

Despite that, we're only just seeing the brand’s first purely electric model, the XC40 Recharge. Does it have what it takes to edge in front of rivals for the electric era? We took one for a week to find out.