Polestar Goes the Extra Mile to Repair Polestar
Wayne Moore and I met at the Australian Electric Vehicles Association BBQ on a sunny Brisbane morning. When I told him I wrote for CleanTechnica, he was keen to tell me his story. Wayne’s Polestar 2 — long range, single motor, with the Pilot and Plus packs — was delivered April 2022. He has had some difficulties with the car, as detailed below. However, he is more than impressed with the tenacity and problem solving skills of the Polestar technicians. It gives him confidence to know that this service team is behind him and the vehicle that he loves.
The following is Wayne’s telling of the story: “In September, I was driving down the M1 heading for Byron Bay (home to Chris Hemsworth et al.) when I got a ‘propulsion warning’, then ‘reduced acceleration’. By the time I pulled over to the shoulder, I saw a 12V error before the car essentially stopped and had no drive. I contacted Polestar and they towed it to Autonexus at Eagle Farm in Brisbane.
“About 5 days later, they gave me the car back. They said they cleared the error codes in the computer and charged the 12V battery and it seemed OK. Then 3 days after that, I had the same failure again, this time while stopped at a red light in Tingalpa. Polestar had the car towed to Eagle Farm again for another look. 4 or 5 days later they told me they had cleared the error codes, upgraded the software, and re-charged the 12v battery and gave me it back.
“3 or 4 days after that, I got in the car on the driveway and literally as soon as I moved, I saw the propulsion warning again. I got out of the car and locked the doors at that point, save breaking down again. Polestar sent a truck to collect it the day after and dropped me a Polestar loan vehicle.
“I sent Polestar a diary of all the issues to give as much detail as possible and help diagnose the issue. I also mentioned that both times they gave me the car back, I had made 4 or 5 trips covering about 40–50 km, so it seemed like there was a pattern to it.
“A couple of weeks later (end of October 2022 now), they told me the issue was resolved and wanted to deliver the car to me. However, I was about to go overseas for a couple of weeks. I wanted them to keep the car and test it, with the 4 or 5 trips between failures in mind. A week later they gave me an update that everything was going well, then a few days after that, confirmed that the issue had recurred. A few days later, they confirmed that they found a failed Current Measuring Sensor, which is actually on the high-voltage side, not the 12V. It seems like the 12V battery not charging had thrown them a loop and they had been investigating the 12V system and finding nothing wrong. Only when the car failed with a technician driving it did they finally diagnose that the issue was in the HV side.
“When I came back from overseas (mid-November), I collected another loan car from them and waited for updates. A replacement for the failed CMS was ordered from China and I was told it would take 3 weeks.
“In early December, I was advised that the part had arrived and repair would be underway imminently. Then the following week I was told that Polestar didn’t have anyone HV certified in Brisbane and that the car would be sent to Volvo in the coming days. The car was sent to Volvo in the second week of December.
“I spoke to the Customer Service Manager I had been dealing with and advised that I was going away at Christmas with the camper trailer, and if I wasn’t going to get my car back, then I needed to make alternate plans. Polestar said they expected my car to be ready in good time, but just in case, they would fit a tow bar to the loan car. This was done the following week. They also advised that as my car had been off the road for so long now, that they were looking at what new vehicles they had in stock — essentially, if this piece of work doesn’t resolve the issue, they are looking at replacing the car.
“In all honesty, I’d rather get my car back for several reasons. One of which is that new Polestars don’t get the full Pilot pack with the matrix headlights. If you have never seen these in action, they are seriously cool (and a very useful safety feature), so I don’t want to lose them unless there is no reasonable alternative.
“In the week before Christmas, I got a message from Volvo to say they were about to start work on my car. Not sure what happened, but the work didn’t start until the week after Christmas. In order to perform the repair, they had to de-energise the traction battery so that it could be removed, as the CMS sits under the floor but above the battery. They also had to remove all of the seats. After installing the part, they needed to vacuum seal and test the battery compartment.
“First week of January, I got a message from Volvo that the repair had been successful and they had performed a couple of drives with no issues. But as per my original notes, they wanted to drive it some more before returning it. So all being well, I should now get the car back tomorrow, Jan 9th.”
I am happy to report that Wayne did get his car back a few days ago, has test driven it multiple times, and everything is working fine. In his words: “Got the car back today and I’m so happy about it! As soon as I sat in the driver’s seat, it instantly felt comfortable and normal.
“Polestar is going to refund some of my finance repayments as a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience. I have asked them if they want to make a comment for the article in the spirit of ‘learning’ and I’ll let you know.”
Polestar has indeed commented through their spokesperson:
“While we prefer not to have inconvenienced customers, we are pleased to hear that our customer service measures are robust and that the customer has been satisfied with how we handled the issues.
“Part of the advantage we have as an affiliate of Volvo Cars is access to workshops and technicians who can take care of our customers’ cars when required.
“The details of this issue and its solution have been relayed with our headquarter colleagues in Sweden in order to assist in avoiding similar issues in the future.
“Thank you for persisting with Polestar. You have been very fair in your commentary considering the circumstances.
“We hope you enjoy the ownership experience from here.”
He certainly is!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
