Looming glut of used EV lemons
Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contactGet a great deal on home solar (or add a quality battery to your existing setup): https://autoexpert.com.au/solarIn this video:Polestar has just started offering battery state of health certificates on select used Polestar 2s being resold in its dealer network. Companies don’t get up in the morning and randomly decide this kind of thing is a good idea. It has to be for a reason.According to them: "As part of the Polestar Pre-owned programme, in which select used cars re-enter the partner network, the certificate transparently shows customers the battery health and capacity of a used Polestar 2. Certifying the useable battery as a percentage, customers can purchase a pre-owned Polestar 2 with peace-of-mind that the car’s battery is in optimal condition."The battery in a Polestar 2 is actually one of the few things that’s proven quite robust so far, with very few owners complaining about range falling into the Marianas Trench. There have been plenty of other faults, but not the battery.Doing this is most probably because the rest of the car has proven to be such an unreliable, abject lemon. Like, don’t mind the lemon - look at how healthy the battery is, dude. Again, according to them: "Since its launch in 2020, Polestar 2 has received over 20 over-the-air (OTA) software updates, allowing the car to continuously improve over time. For Polestar 2, OTA updates have led to efficiency gains, extending the car’s range through battery management, new functionality with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as many loved apps including Waze and YouTube. With regularly scheduled software updates, Pre-owned customers can be assured they have the latest software features in their car."This is a very interesting way to put it. It’s a totally true statement - as far as it goes - but not exactly a complete picture of the OTA reality. I'd argue that many - maybe most - of these OTAs are (often unsuccessful) attempts to fix something that should have been sorted in R&D, before deploying the vehicle publicly.So, battery health certificate or not, Polestar 2 is set to go down in the history books as one of the first enduring EV lemons. Cybertruck is on the podium, certainly, but Polestar 2 is up there, in the Lemon-Scented EV Sweepstakes.
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