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The Google OS is Android Automotive. This just means Polestar have bought the infotainment off Google rather than developing it in house, which given the inevitable shitness of all car infotainments at some point seems like a great idea.
Hopefully it won't happen but Google do have a bit of a track record for making a product better and better until it's almost perfect, then getting bored and dropping all support for it. Example: gen 1+2 Nest thermostats
Their current trajectory is forcibly inserting gemini into everything with much enshitification following. Either that or the product gets taken out the back and shot. I'd run a mile from any car using a google product as the main OS.
You can buy three basic spec R5s for the price of a top spec Polestar 4, not sure why they're on the same shortlist 🙂
Can I refer my learned friend to my previous comment about not having a clue what I want or need. The Alpine version of the 5 has now sneaked onto the list. 🙂
The Google OS is Android Automotive. This just means Polestar have bought the infotainment off Google rather than developing it in house, which given the inevitable shitness of all car infotainments at some point seems like a great idea. It's customisable by the car vendor though so should be just like any other infotainment but better.
Hmm a bit like the bloatware you get on non vanilla android installations. There is a reason casa OTS is exclusively Apple.
Renault 5 and the Alpine also use Android Automotive. Would not be afraid of that, in my PS2 it means things like the mapping is linked to battery status so can do intelligent routing for longer trips. Car still has Android Auto and Carplay. Not sure what the PS4 does but thee PS2 has a neat mode where the instrument screen can run a smaller map insert or just direction arrows, alongside the big screen.
Hmm a bit like the bloatware you get on non vanilla android installations.
I heavily doubt it as it's a different product and a different business model.
I think my ideal car is now a Polestar 3, it's just edged out the Ioniq 6 by virtue of having self levelling suspension. It's 50% more expensive though. I had an Ioniq 6 lease deal advertised at me for £250/mo!
The Google OS is Android Automotive. This just means Polestar have bought the infotainment off Google rather than developing it in house, which given the inevitable shitness of all car infotainments at some point seems like a great idea
I rented a Buick on holiday with this. Could I hell understand what was going off as I had my phone up with AA on too.
So I had two version of AA running on two different screens.
I should have just turned my phone off and stuck with the car"s version but there were differences.
Anyway when I was setting it up I thought the car had a bug as I didn't realise AA had become built in.
I've always found it a bit messy how AA Interacts with the car's own system but currently I'm mostly preferring vauxhall satnav because of its integration with the Hud and awareness of charging stations. Time will tell.
Usually takes 3 weeks of sat in car on your drive figuring this all out.
I think my ideal car is now a Polestar 3
I test drove a Polestar 3 (P3) and a Polestar 4 (P4) a few weeks back. Can’t recall if I posted about it on here or Reddit.
P3 was OK. Air suspension reminded me of my old Model S. Despite its size the P3 did not feel big on the inside. Interface was different from that in the P4 and overly complex. I did not think it was worth the premium. Driver screen did have options for what was shown. Can’t recall if it had a HUD.
PS4 was nice. So far the only alternative I’ve found for my Model Y. Nice inside and seemed roomier than the P3. Software interface was simpler than the P3 but still over complicated. While the OS might be Google, they both had Android auto and Apple CarPlay available. I tried the latter and ended up a bit like @rone and confused about what was doing what. I turned CarPlay off and went with the built in stuff.
Rear view screen where the mirror usually is took a few goes to get used to the focus length change for my old eyes. That ‘mirror’ does get hot. The combination of a really good rear view that works well and the extension of the glass roof behind the rear passenger head rests made me not miss the (usually tiny) rear window and made the cabin feel very spacious. Sitting in the back was great.
acceleration and driving felt a lot better in the P4 over the P3. The driver’s display content can be moved between some options including a computer road view, map, and car data if I remember correctly. There was a HUD. I turned this off as it was both annoying and distracting seeing the navigation arrow and speed ‘out there’. Only gripes were: no autopark and the 360° view is so distorted with its wide angle lenses that it was less use than the tiny wing mirrors; the stupid volume/pause/play knob on the centre console - just put the controls on the screen and the steering wheel! The single phone charging pad/slot is ideally positioned to launch the phone into the face of the middle rear passenger when you accelerate the car.
Nonetheless, both cars felt nice and solid and hardware-wise were pretty good. Software, not great but better than I’ve experienced on many brands.
both cars had ‘frunks’ about the size of a shoebox. Maybe you could get a charging cable in there but it wouldn’t be worthwhile having to use the manual cable release levers to pop the bonnet to retrieve them. Maybe there’s a button for that in the interface?
P4 test drive done, although only the single motor version.
I was impressed. Smooth, quick, effortless, comfortable. Even the tablet-based controls seemed ok. Lane assist and (glitchy) speed warning functions can be switched off with 1 click. And it didn't seem too big, which coming from a full fat e-Tron shouldn't really be a surprise.
I've started the ordering process, fingers crossed I get it for the deal price I was quoted in the middle of the week. Can hopefully get it by the end of the month.
Not quite how it works...This just means Polestar have bought the infotainment off Google rather than developing it in house,
Order approved. Just waiting for the call back to arrange delivery. I suppose I should get an insurance quote.
It's a little bit mad that the dual motor deal was cheaper than the single motor.
Still, after 2 audi quattros and an x-drive bmw, it keeps the tradition going.
Order approved. Just waiting for the call back to arrange delivery. I suppose I should get an insurance quote.
It's a little bit mad that the dual motor deal was cheaper than the single motor.
Still, after 2 audi quattros and an x-drive bmw, it keeps the tradition going.
How much was it? Considering one of these at some point.
Order approved. Just waiting for the call back to arrange delivery. I suppose I should get an insurance quote.
It's a little bit mad that the dual motor deal was cheaper than the single motor.
Still, after 2 audi quattros and an x-drive bmw, it keeps the tradition going.
How much was it? Considering one of these at some point.
Personal lease, 36 months, 3 months up front, £510 per month.
Order approved. Just waiting for the call back to arrange delivery. I suppose I should get an insurance quote.
It's a little bit mad that the dual motor deal was cheaper than the single motor.
Still, after 2 audi quattros and an x-drive bmw, it keeps the tradition going.
How much was it? Considering one of these at some point.
Personal lease, 36 months, 3 months up front, £510 per month.
Thanks, that's similar to what I had seen.
Anyone got an EQC? Prices look good, looks like a nice car but efficiency could be shocking. I think that was also levelled at the EQB as well.
Anyone got an EQC? Prices look good, looks like a nice car but efficiency could be shocking. I think that was also levelled at the EQB as well.
Yes, we've had an eqc for 2 years now.
An EV and a bike 😁
That's a tank with a bike 😘.
Here's an inappropriate bike ev carrying 3 bikes 😂.
For those considering the Polestar 4 - consider the width of it. Mirror to mirror it’s almost 2.2m wide. There’re two at our village school and people really seem to be struggling. For reference it’s the same width as a full fat Range Rover, but because you’re sat down low, judging the position seems to be difficult for the mums at my school. They’re driving far out into the road and both of them already have badly kerbed alloy wheels and MANY hedgerow scratches down the passenger side!
For those considering the Polestar 4 - consider the width of it. Mirror to mirror it’s almost 2.2m wide.
According to Polestar’s tech specs it is 2139mm with mirrors extended. That’s a full 10mm wider than a Tesla Model Y. So wide, but not that wide. The new BMW iX3 is 2093mm wide so there are slimmer cars.
I assume the kerbing and scratches are just from regular carelessness.
edit. Plus some folks have no real perception of the size of their vehicle and its position on the road. Even when it has a visualization of that on the dash.
In a sane world, non commercial vehicles that were overly wide and overly heavy like these would attract massive tax fines paid straight to a ringfenced road maintenance budget. There is absolutely no need for such vehicles, no matter how they are fuelled.
I'm finding my EV6 a bit bulky but that may be because im used to the higher driving position in a Sportage, that said compared to the vehicles above its a skinny 1995mm wide.
That said our tiny Fiat 500 is still 1893 wide so only 12mm narrower.
@winston in a sane world we'd start by taxing lifestyle vans to death as they are much bigger, heavier and often highly polluting.
Holy crap. My CLS feels very wide inside, could not be described as anything other than a bloody big car, and I would not want to go much wider. However according to the internet it's 1881mm wide. That must not include mirrors surely? Just searched Polestar 4 and it says 2003mm without mirrors, so even then that's wider than mine. Oof.
My e-Tron was wider than the Polestar 4. I'm looking forward to it feeling quite svelte 🙂
Just been on our first extended road trip in the Zoe. It went smoothly, East Sussex wins in terms of slowish charger provision in council car parks. That suits a leisurely visit, bit of touristing and lunch and get some useful charge in while you are there. Salisbury was annoying in terms of not working chargers, but maybe we were unlucky.
Cripes, places have changed a bit since my youth...
My EQB arrives in 2 months. Tried it for a couple days, then had an EQA for 3 days that included ~300miles of driving. I liked both, the only thing that grated me was the dashboard. All touch screen, so much going on and j felt it demanded too much attention to navigate rather than focusing on...I dunno, driving. Obviously this was not big enough to stop me ordering one (company car that i woll keep for 3/4 years), but its annoying and I hope I get used to it.
You can often turn stuff off. On mine there is a custom button that can be programmed to do a variety of things, I have it turn the infotainment screen off. Can also turn the screen off in my old now basically prehistoric Merc
We went mooching around the local places yesterday potentially looking for a replacement for our MK7 golf GTD. It’s currently 9 years old and has 75k on it, but it’s increasing 12k a year going to work and back. WBAC still want to give us £8k for it (subject to seeing it), so I thought I’d see what was available as the maths might just about work.
We saw a really nice BMW i4 edrive40 with a very high spec, 2022 plate with 29k miles for £27k. I was pretty keen until I realised the north of £600 a year tax!
Not totally ruled it out but need to get an insurance quote 1st, as the thing that’s selling it to my financial controller is the saving in diesel and servicing, if that’s being wiped out by the tax and insurance, it’s a tough sell!
All touch screen, so much going on and j felt it demanded too much attention to navigate rather than focusing on...I dunno, driving.
This is a modern car disease generally although on my second mostly touch screen car it bothers me less than I thought and I realised it's because I don't really touch any controls in the car beyond the pedals, steering wheel, indicator and wiper stalks once I've pulled off on a journey. I've got skip track and volume on the steering wheel to be fair and I'm still on ICE and maybe charging type stuff needs more interaction with the car?
With Android Auto you can "hey Google" to change the satnav or choose some music or phone someone (if you really must, I prefer not).
north of £600 a year tax
Expensive cars eh?
Though IRL, not that expensive in the scheme of things. I imagine that’s just a few tanks of petrol in a similarly specified ICE car. On which you’d also be paying the ‘luxury’ VED rate. Pesky that there’s no extra to pay for VED related to CO2 emissions. Though I suppose there’s a sort of use based, regressive, charge in fuel duties.
Yeah, in the general scheme of things it’s not that bad, just stings a bit on a yearly basis, but only for 2 years I guess. I’d not buy a car over £40k, whatever the power plant, so wouldn’t normally be on my radar, it’s just that depreciation has brought a what would have been £60k car into our budget. Turns out the insurance is only £100 more than the golf, which is a surprise.
You might save on the servicing, but I wouldn’t guarantee it. Our i3 still needs brakes and other things done which somehow seem to almost cost the same as our old 3l. Petrol…strange that.
Who’d have thunk…
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We saw a really nice BMW i4 edrive40 with a very high spec, 2022 plate with 29k miles for £27k. I was pretty keen until I realised the north of £600 a year tax!
Not totally ruled it out but need to get an insurance quote 1st, as the thing that’s selling it to my financial controller is the saving in diesel and servicing, if that’s being wiped out by the tax and insurance, it’s a tough sell!
Vehicles with a list price of more than £40,000
You have to pay an extra £425 a year if you have a car or motorhome with a list price of more than £40,000.
You do not have to pay this if both of the following apply:
- you have a zero emission vehicle
- the vehicle was registered before 1 April 2025
the thing that’s selling it to my financial controller is the saving in diesel and servicing,
Not ‘zero emissions’?
I’d expect it to be nicer to drive than either diesel or petrol.
Binman - ah, ok. Maybe I trusted my quick internet search too quickly. I’ll dig some more.
PGP - Yes, that as well, but financials very much at the forefront of the decision process. The choice will be 2nd hand EV, or stick with what we have until it drops to bits.
The BMW i4 edrive40 is a pure EV right? In which case you won’t pay the luxury car tax on a 22 plate as it only applies to BEVs first registered after April this year.
I had my first full EV towing experience at the weekend.
Previously I have towed a light <1100kg caravan with an Octavia Hybrid which was very good. Low speed reversing of the caravan with battery is a dream compared to previous manual diesels.
So I used my Polestar 2 LRSM to pull a Bailey Unicorn. At 2.3m wide and 1450kg it was by far the biggest caravan I have driven with. The Polestar handled brilliantly, we had quite strong side winds and it was very smooth. We were heading North to Cumbria and had to negotiate one long and steep ascent followed by very steep descent. There was no shortage of pull even though this is near the Polestar max weight.
Range was going to be the big unknown. The journey was 70 miles each way. We used 20% battery heading down with just the car. The return always uses a bit more battery coming up past Tebay etc. and we used 45% with the caravan on the back. So about double what the car would have done on its own. Should allow for 100 miles between charges. We are going to put this on an all year site so I will not be touring with it but it is good to know. I may pull the smaller caravan occasionally when touring with the EV.
The tax change in April this year was one of the reasons we specifically looked for a car registered before then.
I had my first full EV towing experience at the weekend.
Previously I have towed a light <1100kg caravan with an Octavia Hybrid which was very good. Low speed reversing of the caravan with battery is a dream compared to previous manual diesels.
So I used my Polestar 2 LRSM to pull a Bailey Unicorn. At 2.3m wide and 1450kg it was by far the biggest caravan I have driven with. The Polestar handled brilliantly, we had quite strong side winds and it was very smooth. We were heading North to Cumbria and had to negotiate one long and steep ascent followed by very steep descent. There was no shortage of pull even though this is near the Polestar max weight.
Range was going to be the big unknown. The journey was 70 miles each way. We used 20% battery heading down with just the car. The return always uses a bit more battery coming up past Tebay etc. and we used 45% with the caravan on the back. So about double what the car would have done on its own. Should allow for 100 miles between charges. We are going to put this on an all year site so I will not be touring with it but it is good to know. I may pull the smaller caravan occasionally when touring with the EV.
Interesting to hear this. I can't begin to imagine the ball ache involved in trying to hook up to a charger whilst towing a caravan
Obviously dropping the van and heading to the charger solo is the answer, but it's another level of faff.
Still no delivery date for my Polestar 4. I've got the VIN and a steady trickle of emails from Polestar and the broker, but no delivery date yet. I'm assuming the deal was so good that uptake was greater than anticipated, so I'm happy to wait a bit longer.
On a different topic there's one of he new Alpine A290s appeared at a house nearby. Absolutely stunning! I think Mrs OTS' Hyundai Kona is on borrowed time 🙂
I can't begin to imagine the ball ache involved in trying to hook up to a charger whilst towing a caravan
I plan to do this in future. I think it will have to be a case of un-hitching at a motorway services and driving round to the chargers. Clearly this is going to add 10-15 mins to the stop, but it should be doable. Especially if you have two people who can stay with the van and/or the car.
There are a few pull-through charging places, but not enough to rely on. I think the new hub at Winchester has some, and other places like that. Once off the motorway you'd be a bit screwed, but most places in the UK south of the Central Belt are less than 150 miles from a motorway.
Wife's just bought a 2023 Kona EV. 44,000km on it. It's minty! She got it on Friday and asked if she could borrow my Cruiser for the weekend to take my daughter camping, so I drove her new car to work yesterday and today.
Coming from a petrol V8 that weights close to 3 tonne, to a wee electric car.... No sound is very odd. But blimey it shifts in! Even in "Standard" mode. She looked at many but this was the one she liked. I let her just choose and do all the haggling and test drives. I know sweet FA about EV's. But makes sense I supposed. We have solar. We have the sun.
Once off the motorway you'd be a bit screwed, but most places in the UK south of the Central Belt are less than 150 miles from a motorway.