From Florence to Gothenburg in the Polestar 1

For a company that makes cars, we talk about journeys surprisingly often. The “Polestar journey”, the one towards sustainable electric performance, is our favourite. But there are plenty of literal journeys as well.

Front angle of two Polestar 1 cars positioned in the foreground of a scenic mountain landscape.

Take the recent journey from northern Italy to western Sweden, for example. Five Polestar employees drove two Polestar 1s (with a Volvo XC90 rounding out the convoy) from Florence to Gothenburg, with the twin aims of mapping central Europe's charging network and seeing if it's possible to drive that entire distance using just electric power (spoiler alert: it is).

This epic road trip unfolded over the course of six days, following a route not usually taken by manufacturers when testing electric range and charging infrastructure. The team set out from Florence, the Polestar 1s already on site from another journey, the 1000 Miglia Green. From there, they drove through Austria, the Czech Republic, eastern Germany and Denmark, testing new hardware and operators along the way.

The expedition was a success by any measure. Charging worked at every stop, driving between said stops was a joy, and the Polestar 1 turned as many heads on the highways as it did at the charging stations. "It performed really well," says expedition leader Anders Höckenström, "amazingly fun to drive, and more than ready to be a daily driver in pure electric mode."

So ended the journey from the Tuscan capital to the Marseilles of the North. See the gallery for pictures from the journey, one of many in a greater journey towards elevated, sustainable electric performance. 

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