For decades, André Cornellier and wife Anne were Audi devotees. With the price of gas rising, André starting researching electric vehicles (EVs) during the pandemic. Two years ago, the Clarington couple bought an all-electric Polestar 2, produced by Swedish carmaker Volvo under the Polestar sub-brand, and manufactured in China.
Cornellier, president of Systems Approach Strategies, charts their EV journey:
“My first car was a 1972 Maverick that I bought new, then slowly watched it rust away over the years. In the 1990s, my wife and I got into Audis and became repeat buyers. We owned six. My wife mainly drove them and I had pickup trucks (and I still do).
During COVID, I was researching EVs and a couple of my clients had them. I tried them and liked them, and ordered a Tesla Model Y, but it had a 12- to 14-month waiting period. A good friend bought a Polestar 2. The worst critics of EVs seem to be people who don’t drive them, and I’d rather talk to people who drive them and hear their experience. I fell in love with the Polestar and ordered one, and it arrived before the Tesla, so I went with it instead. It was really well built, like an Audi, and I liked the fit and finish.
As much as I wanted an electric car, I wanted something that’s fun to drive, and the Polestar met both of those requirements. It’s very comfortable, more on the luxury side than on the utilitarian side, and has a glass roof. I wanted a touring car with a bit of comfort. It’s a very safe car, it performs well and has a lot of safety features.
Its colour is Thunder, a dark bluish grey. I put in a Level 2 charging station in our garage. It gives a charge capacity of almost 12 kW (kilowatt), the highest you can go with a home installation. The lowest I’ve let it go before charging is 15 per cent, but normally I don’t let it get that low.
In summer, it gets around 400 kilometres per charge and in winter, due to the cold and using heat, it drops to 325, but it’s no big deal. We got it in November 2022, and a month later went to Mont-Tremblant for a ski trip. I was a little nervous about range, but we took Highway 7 and had no issues. We topped it up a bit at a station in Norwood, then the next stop was Ottawa. We plugged it into a charger at a Canadian Tire and charged it for an hour while we went to a restaurant. And Quebec has a fantastic charging network.
It’s really fun to drive. It has dual (421 horsepower) motors and is extremely quick. It can make your head snap back when you accelerate. Once we got the car, I did zero to 100 km in four seconds just to show people, but I don’t drive like that. At an intersection, you can go zero to 60 very quickly, but it’s not speeding and you’re not burning gas. It’s so easy on gas and so easy on the pocketbook.
I charged it last night from 50 per cent to 90 per cent. There’s an app with the charger and it tells it to come on after 7 p.m. (when hydro rates are lower). It was $5.60 to charge it, and it works out to roughly $2.35 per 100 km. With our last Audi, it cost about $20 to go 100 km.
We’ll have owned the Polestar for two years in November, when it’s due for its first service call. We’re in 150 km of the dealership radius, so they will bring another car here, take ours away, then return it. That’s included in the warranty. There’s been absolutely no issue with it.
If I get another one, I will order the option of heating and air-conditioning built into the seats. Polestar is going to be a repeat buy for us. I can’t say anything bad about the car.”
Tracy Hanes Special to the Star
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