Volvo Reveals the New Polestar 2 Electric Performance Vehicle

DedEmbryonicCe11 said:
I have no idea what it's like these days but growing up in California in the 80's with ICE it was often cheaper for the manufacturers to make a special CA model exhaust setup (reduced HP and emissions) than to make every vehicle meet those standards.
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These days things have changed a lot.

Since California gets a waiver to set their own emissions requirements, a lot of other states who are emissions conscious piggyback on California's requirements, making a much larger market than just California (which is pretty large in and of itself, let's be honest)

This results in the automakers in general just making their entire product offerings California emissions compliant, except for some top end performance models, which they may choose to just not offer there.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
3.) I am concerned about the level of Chinese involvement in this. If the Chinese have any involvement at all in the design, I'm out. They cannot be trusted.
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I am right there with you due to my own personal experiences. And it is not a racial thing. It is from encountering a culture of ingrained corruption in the far east car parts business.
 
HVAC said:
I am right there with you due to my own personal experiences. And it is not a racial thing. It is from encountering a culture of ingrained corruption in the far east car parts business.
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Exactly.

There is this cultural aspect of Chinese society which seems ingrained in damned near everyone that whatever you have to do to win, you do it, rules, ethics, whatever be damned. And it shows in everything. Product design, manufacturing, heck, even in video games. There is a reason there are so many Chinese hackers.

Then there's the little aspect of the authoritarian regime designing products for our use with connected features that makes me way too uneasy.

It's not a racial thing. Western born and raised people of Chinese decent don't have this problem. It's a cultural phenomenon, which IMHO probably stems from people spending 70 years under an authoritarian regime, and needing to adapt, and be creative with rules and ethics in order to survive.

This is how we wind up with melamine in milk, faked car crash tests, poisoned toothpaste and pet food, collapsing buildings, derailing trains, etc. etc.

China probably needs regime change followed by a few decades of post-single party rule to adapt for me to trust anything designed there.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Exactly.

There is this cultural aspect of Chinese society which seems ingrained in damned near everyone that whatever you have to do to win, you do it, rules, ethics, whatever be damned.
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This phenomenon has gone through cycles in Chinese history. It depends very much on the almighty Chinese ruler. During the cultural revolution, most of the people who had backbones or ethics were purged. You had to be a slime ball to survive that period. Subsequently, China has gone backwards in ethics. The generations who were taught by the cultural revolution generation came out to be mostly like what you said. The current China industrial policy reflects this philosophy: Win at all cost, including your morality which does not bring you food on the table. Hopefully, after a few generations, the society will come back to normal.
 
clockdogg said:
The real crash tests aren't any better. Geelee (Volvo's owner) real crash test results (Clever. Whole car is a crumple zone) :nailbiting:

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Eh, might want to do a bit of research. That car is a 1978 Holden Commodore, which was an Australia company at the time, a subsidiary of General Motors. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Commodore_(VB) and the referenced crash test

I get your concerns but spreading stuff like this isn't the way to get your point across.
 
Term-X said:
Eh, might want to do a bit of research. That car is a 1978 Holden Commodore, which was an Australia company at the time, a subsidiary of General Motors. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Commodore_(VB) and the referenced crash test

I get your concerns but spreading stuff like this isn't the way to get your point across.
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Duly chastised. I fell for the clickbait headline. And pasted link without a moment's fact checking. Think the internet might a bad influence on me.

Here's a much better Geely result

 
Geely only provides funding to Volvo. Polestar itself is designed out of Sweden, built in China. The China plant is strictly managed/led by Volvo staff. The level of QC is no different then the cars built at the Sweden plant.

So I wouldn't doubt the quality, and safety standards.

Although personally I won't support their Chinese owners and economy so I won't buy a Polestar/Volvo.

I'd only consider buying the Volvo's built at the south carolina plant.

I still believe Polestar will fail outside of the China market because folks don't want to spend that much money on something made in China. The actual quality doesn't matter. It could be built better than a Rolls Royce - Folks don't consider China the source of luxury brands.

I also wouldn't want something this computerized part of my life if it's been produced in China given the high risk for Chinese government backdoors, etc.
 
Tbird761 said:
It figures. They've improved the UI though I think. The M3 went too far down the minimalist path. That said, the M3 is known for its high safety factor. The Volvo will be new to that arena.
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The most uninformed statement on [H] for February 28th 2019.
 
Tbird761 said:
It figures. They've improved the UI though I think. The M3 went too far down the minimalist path. That said, the M3 is known for its high safety factor. The Volvo will be new to that arena.
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Other have already said it - yeah you must not have been paying attention the last bunch of decades...
 
I was on board until they went on a full spiel about vegan interiors... What if I want a rich Corinthian leather in my $60k car?
 
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