The shoot-out formula is very simple. One presenter, two like-minded cars. Which is the quickest around the track? Two four-door four-seaters which offer family practicality combined with supercar levels of performance, all for around £45k. By EV standards Tesla are now old hands in the electric car game. Polestar, on the other hand, are brand new, though the parent company Volvo has been around a while. Can the upstart create a shock? Watch our brand new series, Thursdays at 9pm on Quest or via Discovery+
One track two cars and a stopwatch it’s a fifth year shootout and this time it’s one of the most hotly contested ev markets high performance luxury evs and i’m dialing in my f1 know-how to find out which is the quickest u.s company tesla have drawn a line in the sand when it comes to electric cars with a blistering turn of pace which is why the 50 grand model
3 is the world’s most popular ev in 2020 tesla sold 365 000 of them but fresh off the boat from sweden is this it’s the all-new pole star 2. pole star used to be volvo skunk works racing division but now the company is flying solo as an all-electric car manufacturer and with the pole star 2 they’re going straight for tesla’s jugular both cars are quick luxury
Evs but at 46 grand the swede is 4 000 pounds cheaper than the american performance on both cars is very close with the tesla pipping the pollster on acceleration but the swedish car makes up for the extra weight with its beefier tall has the time come for the upstart to dislodge the king’s crown it’s all down to which car can block the fastest lap around the
Track and first up it’s the tesla there’s 476 horsepower and 575 newton meters of torque under my right foot and remember the model 3 is tesla’s entry-level car now all this power is wonderful but of course here in the uk we have corners and that might be a problem because the tesla is over 100 kilos more than the similar sized bmw 3 series this thing should
Handle like a truck but i was in for a surprise the front of the car turns in beautifully well i do like how positive the steering is as soon as i turn the wheel it reacts well and the back of the car does pivot around that front axle it’s nice oh even a bit of oversteer however there’s no doubt that the car’s agility is helped by how the weight is positioned
The battery sits at the bottom of the car and there’s actually an even split between the front and the rear so it’s actually very well distributed let’s get on the brakes doesn’t quite stop as well as i would like great punch i have to say out of that final corner right let’s do a time lapse coming up towards the bus stop on the brakes stop stop stop stop stop
Stop front end super positive in these slow speed corners changing direction is actually very good steps out of line just a little bit there but now it’s nice advice oh and up to the line the tesla completes the lap in 47.34 seconds over to the swede my first impressions i really like it i think the ride quality is great the steering feel is nice although
The polestar has a similar sized 78 kilowatt battery to the tesla there are no disabled differences when it comes to power and torque it gives away about 68 horsepower although it does have 85 more newton meters of torque this particular car is fitted with an optional 5000 pound performance pack which includes operated brakes and suspension you might say that’s
Cheating because of course we’re trying to compare the two but it now means that the two cars are very similar in price in fact there’s only about 800 pounds difference between them but in spite of this option the pole star doesn’t feel as quick and that’s probably because it’s even heavier than the model 3. weighs 200 276 kilos more that’s four karun chandoks
In terms of the actual body roll the car feels quite stable it’s got a lot of understeer in it though so as well as being a bit slower in a straight line it may also corner a bit reluctantly i would guess the lap time is going to be slower let’s try and do a hot lap it doesn’t punch as quickly as the tesla up to the corner wow i can actually break deeper despite
The weight of it the change of direction it’s not as nimble it’s not as agile i’m trying to chuck it around the bus stop but against the odds and maybe due to its great praise the pole star leads the tesla by 0.4 of a second at their first checkpoint across the kerbs at the chicane wow i tell you what i’m massively impressed with the ride quality however by the
Second checkpoint the pole star is a quarter of a second behind the tesla glass corner turn it in understand come on i want to go there not there the pole star crosses the line in 47.88 just over half a second behind the model 3. the pole star is a well made piece of kit and i was really impressed by its handling but if you’ve got 50 grand to blow and you want
The absolute fastest of these two luxury evs then tesla just pips polestar to the line you
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Tesla Model 3 VS Polestar 2: Shootout | Fifth Gear Recharged By Fifth Gear