Polestar Postcard from Cornwall

Greetings from Cornwall!

Cornwall is one of the UK's top holiday spots, with an estimated 5 MILLION visitors every year! Many holiday makers travel by car to get to Cornwall. With more electric cars on the road we wondered - can we REALLY have a family holiday in an electric car?

• Would we make it the 250 miles to Cornwall?

• Would a heavy camping trailer affect a car’s range?

• Would there be enough space for ALL of our stuff?

• Would we have to stop and charge all of the time?

• Would we run out of power and break down?

• Would there be time wasting queues for chargers?

• Would we be able to find chargers easily?

• Would we make it back home without having to stop and charge all of the time?

Thanks to our friends at Polestar we got to find out! Wish YOU were here? Roadster! takes a Polestar 2 on holiday.

At Roadster! we care about the planet.

Like many kids, we think about climate change. We see it on the news and in the weather. We learn about things like recycling, conservation and renewable energy at school. We are concerned about our environment and we want to do the right thing and make a positive difference through our actions.

One thing that has caught our attention is electric vehicles…. there are so many cool ones coming out! As the government has a goal for all new cars to be zero emission by 2030 it is probable that, by the time our readers reach driving age, they will be considering an electric car as their first car.

The Roadster! family hasn’t turned to electric yet - our parents all still drive fossil fuel guzzlers! Roadster! Dad says he’s a bit nervous of electric cars. There are a lot of stories and confusion about them, and some of the bad stories are putting people off from buying electric cars. The only way the Roadster family were going to decide whether it was time to make the switch was with a REAL LIFE family test!

And what a test! Our friends at Polestar let us borrow one of their latest Polestar 2 cars and use it for a half term family holiday down in Cornwall!

Roadster! readers may already be familiar with the Polestar as we reviewed it in our 2nd issue (Easter ‘23).

Back then we wondered what a family camping trip to Cornwall might be in like in a Polestar 2. We discussed the 240 mile trip from our home and thought the car wouldn’t make it without two stops to charge the batteries. We wondered how long it would take to charge at a motorway services, how long it would take to find an available charger (we had once  seen queues of electric cars blocking the car park at a motorway services!), and we wondered how we would charge the car once we were actually on holiday in Cornwall. 

This time we were getting to try Polestar’s new long range single motor version of the Polestar 2. 

This car is powered by a single motor 220 kW single motor, a claimed range of 406 miles* and is capable of towing upto 1500kg, so it was perfect for our heavy camping gear! 

Although the price of the car is quite expensive at £48,950, it is comparable to similar sized electric cars. Before going to print we found an older (2021) low mileage long range (78 kW) single motor Polestar 2 for under £23,000.  That’s still very expensive, but for those families that don’t want or can’t afford a brand new car, it may be a compelling choice to switch to electric.

So… IS IT TIME? 

The Journey Down

Polestar 2 is a very capable family car for the ordinary day-to-day, but this wasn’t an every day journey!

Packing for a camping trip in the Roadster! family is never easy, so we have some rules! The tent and all of the furniture and equipment go into the trailer. The bedding, clothes, and all of our other essentials for a week away go in the car.

• We’d normally have a bigger boot space and a roof box on a epic trip to Cornwall, so this time we knew we were going to be tight!

• Polestar 2 managed it… JUST! We packed it to the FULL, using every bit of storage space we could find! Sam and Dad kept the Polestar’s “frunk” a secret for their things!

• Even so, all of the passengers were hemmed in by bags, and were even carrying bags their laps!

• We know this wasn’t Polestar 2’s fault - we had far too much stuff! However we quickly understood that we would need a bigger car if we were to ever buy an EV. Luckily Polestar have launched Polestar 3 and Polestar 4, so there are other Polestar options to explore!

ROUTE:

Our planned route took us 250 miles from Roadster! HQ in Banbury, through the Cotswolds to Gloucester, down the M5 motorway into Devon, then along the main A30 road through Devon and to our destination in Cornwall.

We started off with a full battery and, according to Polestar 2’s data, the car had a range of 250 miles. There was a chance that we’d reach the campsite with 4% battery left, but risky! Best to charge!

Out on the motorway, Polestar’s clever adaptive cruise technology used sensors to set a safe speed, watch traffic and make changes to speed… Roadster! Dad almost didn’t have to drive!

As we approached Taunton we were in need of a recharge before the car! The car’s map pointed us towards a retail park with a rapid charger off the next junction. Being a retail park, it was not set up for tow cars, so we had to unhook the trailer and park it elsewhere to use the charger!

By the time we had finished eating the car was back at 90% charge and we hit the road - non-stop to the campsite.

Polestar 2 warned us of an accident on our original route A30 route and suggested an alternative - the A38 across the famous Tamar Bridge! We took it, and eventually arrived at the campsite just six minutes later than we had originally planned! The drive down had been an absolute breeze!

In Cornwall...

Sandy beaches, rocky coves, pretty villages, seaside towns, dramatic waves, fine art, ruined castles, clotted cream, ancient history, exotic gardens, mining heritage, Cornish Pasties, land of legend…

This long, narrow peninsula in the Southwest of the United Kingdom has something for everyone!

We love Cornwall at Roadster!

Cornwall has the longest coastline in Britain, and an incredible micro climate. Affected by the sea, it can be really rainy and stormy in one area, and amazingly sunny in another! Cornwall often has warm temperatures and mild winters, meaning it can sustain incredible sub-tropical plants. You can grow citrus fruits and even bananas in Cornwall!

Sadly, our visit seemed to coincide with some terrible weather, which limited our adventures a little.

Charge #01 Newquay.

Roadster! Dad awoke feeling anxious. Polestar 2 comes with a 10A home charging cable and we could have plugged it in at the campsite, but it would have been SLOW! With only 35% battery left after the drive down Dad was worried that we’d have to interrupt the holiday in order to get a decent charge, so he decided to head off for a battery top up before everyone woke up.

The map showed a 50kW charger 18 minutes drive away. Not as fast as the 150kW we used on the way, but it would do. It seemed odd that there were not any fast chargers in the area, but that’s what the map said.

The BP Pulse station turned out to be a single charger box in a car park on a holiday park. There was no canopy, it was heavy rain, and there was nothing to do at the holiday park. Roadster! Dad just had to sit in the car and wait. It took an hour to get to 90%.

Charge #02 Podpoint. Tesco Extra. Redruth.

A wet and windy day took us inland to explore Cornwall’s tin mining history… we were VERY comfortable in the Polestar! Our touring took the battery down to 36% and we needed food, so we charged the car whilst shopping.

Podpoint was a slower charger but we thought we’d use it to top up. It needed an app download and credit in an account, which took extra time to sort out.

We were in the shop just 35 minutes, but in that time the charge had only gone up by 4kW! 4KW in a battery with a capacity of 220kW! Not all chargers are the same!

With the weather against us, we didn’t tour around Cornwall as much as we would have liked.

It wasn’t all bad! We did manage to get to some of our favourite spots, but strong winds and heavy rain definitely stopped us from heading further afield.

Luckily the Polestar kept the kids amused! Whenever at the campsite the kids could be found in the Polestar - keeping dry, playing games, watching YouTube on the big Polestar screen and even making their own videos!

Charge #03 Shell Recharge. Kingsley Village, Penhale.

We were down to just 29% after our journey back from Redruth, but what’s this? Out of service? To be fair, there were Polestar compatible Tesla chargers nearby but these needed another app. Instead, the next morning…

Charge #04 MFG, Trevemper Rd, Newquay.

This is more like it! Six 150 kW chargers, a supermarket with healthy options, and a bakery with hot food and drink. Strangely this charger was not on Polestar’s maps and we found it accidentally. It had only opened recently.

The Journey Home

The journey home from holiday is always tough, but this one was HORRIBLE!

At the end of a camping holiday you have to pack everything back up in exactly the same way as it came out… it’s impossible!

Even worse! We had more things! Wet suits, buckets, spades, food… Somehow we managed, though Dad did lose his old boots!

Accidents and traffic made for a VERY LONG journey back… 8 hours! This time there was no way around… we were STUCK!

We crawled to Taunton and were desperate to stop and rest. The Polestar had plenty of remaining charge after such a slow climb back through Cornwall and Devon, but we didn’t want to stop again - so we pulled in at the first available motorway services...

What a mistake! ONE slow charger - ONE! AND it was already in use! So we had to go and find somewhere else off the motorway… we ended up back at the same retail park we visited on the way down! Once again, we had to unhook the camping trailer, only this time it was busier, so it was a lot more troublesome!

Luckily, the rapid charger was brilliant, after a rest and some exercise, we were on our way.

It was STILL slow, so we needed a stop at Michaelwood Services. This time - NO chargers, but at least they were coming!

So, what did we learn?

Could we REALLY have a family holiday in an electric car?

Yes! Just about!

The Polestar 2 is a great car! We loved it and Roadster! Sam especially loved the panoramic glass roof, the comfortable seats and the large infotainment screen. It was just too small for the family camping trip… we need to take less stuff!

Polestar 2’s long range single motor made it MORE than capable of coping with the haphazard charging availability we found in Cornwall. With a bit of planning, we were NEVER worried about running out of charge in the Polestar, and our holiday never stopped because we had to charge the car... making Dad get up early was a great idea!

THINGS WE LOVED!

• Polestar 2 for every day - it was REALLY nice! The kids loved watching the sky through the panoramic roof!

• Driving Polestar 2 - it’s a fun, powerful and responsive car to drive!

• Polestar’s accurate battery information - never wrong!

• Adaptive cruise technology - it made driving easy!

• Hey Google! Polestar 2 accepted voice commands - no more taking your eyes off the road to hunt through menus!

• Google Maps warning of a traffic build up - offering an alternative route was ACE!

• Rapid Chargers - Give lots of charge in under an hour, but not all electric cars are compatible!

THINGS WE DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH!

• Leaving our route to find charge - Having to leave the motorway and hunt down chargers in unfamiliar locations creates unnecessary delays and stress!

• On route chargers are not set up for campers! No rapid chargers in caravan car parks, and chargers set at the end of normal parking bays… Having to decouple caused all sorts of problems!

• FAST FOOD! Ok, Roadster! Kids love fast food, but we noticed that where chargers were near a food outlet it was usually fast food and not healthy eating. OK as a rare treat, but not as a habit!

• Not all chargers are equal! Careful planning is required with a longer range car, as some of the lower output chargers just take far too long.

• Few and far between! There were just enough rapid chargers within a six mile range for us to get by, but they were in constant use and we saw two were out of order… If more people visit Cornwall with electric cars will there be enough chargers to go around?

• Out-of-date charger info. Our favourite charge point (MSG) wasn’t on Polestar’s maps. What others didn’t we know about?

• There were no where enough chargers on the motorway….exactly where they are needed the most!