Polestar has revealed its next-generation Polestar 2 sedan, which comes with a series of significant upgrades and some minor design changes.
Polestar is an innovative Swedish EV brand that has quickly gained a cult following in North America and Europe for its sleek and modern design, relentless dedication to sustainable manufacturing, and premium interior offerings which have clearly benefitted from the company’s relation to Volvo. Now, the company has released the next generation of its trendy Polestar 2 sedan, and with some significant performance upgrades, the vehicle has only become a more enticing offering.
Foremost in the company’s press release is the sad passing of the front-wheel-drive model; it will be missed. But in its place, Polestar has followed in the footsteps of Tesla and made rear-wheel-drive the standard drive for its vehicles. Along with the change in orientation, Polestar has designed an all-new drivetrain that means the RWD model could be pretty squirrely.
With Polestar’s new permanent magnet motor design, the single motor, RWD, standard range sedan comes with 300 horsepower (220kW), 361 pound-feet of torque, and a (while not blistering) respectable 0-60 of 6.2 seconds. Compared to the current generation sedan, this is an increase of over 60 horsepower and roughly 120 pound-feet of torque.
Luckily, this massive boost in power doesn’t come at the detriment of range. With the standard 69kWh battery, the RWD Polestar 2 achieves a range of 322 miles (518km), and with the optional 82kWh long-range battery, the sedan is capable of a staggering 395 miles (635km) of range. However, it should be noted that with the smaller standard-range battery, drivers are limited to a charging speed of 135kW instead of the 205kW the long-range battery is capable of.
Now, don’t hold your breath if you are like me and think this new upgrade has you ready to buy. Polestar will not sell the standard range sedan in North America, meaning that the base model vehicle’s price will likely rapidly increase in the next generation.
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For those who are more interested in the higher performance trims, Polestar has not left you hanging. The dual-motor AWD variant of the Polestar 2, which is only available with the longer-range battery, receives an equally massive bump in power. A rear-biased system produces 422 horsepower (310kW) and 545 pound-feet of torque, rocketing the sport sedan to 60 in just 4.5 seconds. And if that isn’t enough, Polestar also sells an optional Performance Pack, which increases power to 476 horsepower and lowers the 0-60 to just 4.2 seconds.
Other upgrades to the next-gen vehicle focus on its driving tech and sustainability. Foremost, Polestar will include the “Smart Zone” on the vehicle, a panel of radar sensors, and cameras on the front of the car to aid in autonomous driving applications. While this sensor array was first displayed on the upcoming Polestar 3 SUV, it’s clear that the company will introduce it to more products as it continues to improve its autonomous driving offering.
The upgrade in sustainability is also quite significant, as Polestar has cut the carbon emissions per car produced by over a ton, equating to a far better lifecycle carbon footprint than the current generation.
Pricing has not yet been made available by Polestar for markets outside of Europe. Still, the Standard Range RWD model will be available for 50,190 euros (not available in North America), with the top-of-the-line Long Range AWD Performance model going for 64,690 euros ($70,315). The base model that will be available in North America, the Long-Range RWD, coming in March of this year, sells for 53,890 euros ($58,569).
Following Tesla’s recent price cuts, the Polestar 2, despite its unique upgrades, comes off as quite the premium offering and may face some significant backlash for not following Tesla’s steps and lowering prices. And while the company may receive some help if it can assemble the vehicle at Volvo’s South Carolina facility, allowing it to qualify for the US Federal EV incentive, it would still be priced a full $10,000 more than the base Tesla Model 3. It remains unclear if the focus on sustainability and the more premium interior will attract customers from the EV juggernaut in North America or globally.
What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com!
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Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
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Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
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Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
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- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his social media platform X on Thursday night to deny a ridiculous rumor regarding the sale of the company’s Chinese vehicle production plant, Gigafactory Shanghai.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, claimed in a scathing new report that Tesla was exploring a potential sale of the entire China business in an effort to help bolster a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk immediately denied the rumor not once but twice, initially calling it “fake news,” and then calling it “absurdly fake news” in a separate post just a few moments later:
This is fake news
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The original poster of the Wall Street Journal article that Musk saw deleted the initial post sharing the headline and the rumored sale of Tesla’s China business.
This has never even come up in a discussion ever.
Absurdly fake news.
-People should assume news is fake until proven otherwise.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The report seemed absolutely and unequivocally false to begin with; Tesla’s business in China is among the most important pieces of the company’s business. Not only does the factory supply vehicles for the domestic market, but also for various other markets in Asia and Europe.
China is also one of the largest automotive markets in the world, and Tesla has performed well there despite the robust competition.
The speculation regarding a Tesla and SpaceX merger has started to gain steam this year as the space exploration company went public just a month ago. There has been speculation that Musk will bridge all of his companies under one “umbrella company,” and analysts believe this could happen before the end of the decade.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
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This is the latest iteration of Musk’s very evident war on mainstream media. Reports regarding any of Musk’s companies are quick to get the dreaded “false” or “fake news” response from the CEO when they are unfounded.
Elon Musk
Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get
Tesla’s Optimus chief corrected himself on X, confirming a staggering 10 million robot production target.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus program has a new number attached to it, after Ashok Elluswamy, the executive who has run the humanoid robot program since June 2025, posted a three word correction on X Thursday, “Correction, 10 million robots.”
The line clarifies the long term annual capacity Tesla is building toward its planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas, a figure Musk has cited repeatedly since last year’s shareholder meeting.
The scale is worth noting, because ten million robots a year would mean Tesla building more units annually than most countries sell in new cars. Tesla has framed this as a second line, not the first. The buildout is happening in two phases: a roughly one million unit per year line inside Tesla’s Fremont factory, installed on the floor space vacated when Model S and Model X production ended earlier this year, and a much larger dedicated facility under construction at Giga Texas that broke ground on its first steel structure in May. That Texas facility is the one Elluswamy’s correction refers to, and is expected to reach volume production sometime in 2027.
Correction, 10 million robots https://t.co/0z4nyQNTzp
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) July 30, 2026
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Elluswamy took over Optimus from Milan Kovac last summer and has spent the months since talking up the program’s trajectory. Elon Musk has also floated the ten million figure at Tesla’s 2025 shareholder meeting.
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Ending Model S and Model X production to make room for the first Optimus line was one of the more consequential manufacturing decisions in the company’s recent history, retiring two flagship vehicles in favor of a robot that has yet to enter mass production. Musk has previously estimated per unit production costs at $20,000 to $25,000 once Tesla reaches a million units a year, though he hasn’t said what that cost looks like at ten times the volume.
Tesla Model Y L’s new features flexed at unveiling event at Diner
Tesla CEO Elon Musk denies ridiculous Gigafactory Shanghai rumor
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner-80x80.jpg)
