Base 2dr Coupe
2021 Polestar 1

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — If it seemed like it was gone in a flash, it was. And we’re not talking about what the Polestar 1 must have looked like to a bystanding tule elk as it minded its own business along a mountain road in the Los Padres National Forest. The 1's entire lifecycle was just three years long, half as long as the typical car. When all is said and done, Polestar will have sold a handful shy of 1,500 units worldwide, making the sleek plug-in hybrid grand tourer one of the rarest modern cars you’ll ever spot in the wild. In fact, during our farewell drive with the Polestar 1 in Southern California we were stopped several times by curious observers. Bentleys and Lambos are plentiful as pigeons in this region but a Polestar’s a golden pheasant. “When does it come out?” one onlooker asked. Well, aaaactually ... It's been on the market for three years, and Polestar says its remaining stock numbers in the tens. The final North American units will deliver in Q1 of 2022 and you can’t order custom colors any more. That’s probably just as well, because the only option on the Polestar 1 is a $5,000 matte paint job, and matte is, like, so 2010. Polestar never meant for its flagship to last more than three years. Production was always going to be limited to 500 a year. Moreover, by the time the 1 debuted, kicking off Polestar as a standalone brand, the powers that be had decided from the outset that all subsequent models would be entirely electric. During our second drive of the Polestar 1, Senior Editor John Beltz Snyder concluded that such a battery-electric vehicle, the Polestar 2, makes more sense to buy. That may be true when all you’re doing is commuting around town or your highway journeys stay restricted to interstates. I would argue, however, that once you venture outside the web of charging stations, a plug-in hybrid makes much more sense. One of the most memorable trips I’ve ever taken was in a factory five-speed 1997 Lexus SC, a brilliant grand tourer if there ever was one. I had one week to get from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, and aside from visits to friends in Chicago and Des Moines, there was no route, no itinerary, no plan. I could stick to the interstates if I chose, or detour on a whim down desolate roads to see the 140 million year old sandstone formations at Arches National Park or the world’s largest quarter. This drive of the Polestar 1 evoked that trip, but on a smaller scale. Northwest of Ojai are some of the best roads in a state celebrated for its superb roads — sidewinding two-laners snaking through mountains, a beam of asphalt slicing through desert vistas — but many sections cut through cell signal dead zones where you don’t see a fellow traveler, or gas station, for miles. We’re not crybabies when it comes to …
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