FOLLOW THAT STAR

The Pole Star signposts the top of the world, so what better way to chase its guiding light to the UK's most northerly point than in its automotive namesake? Richard Webber packs his charging cables and heads to the Shetland Islands 

This isn't quite the end of the earth - but you can see it from here," quips one of our hosts. Looking north "T from our windswept perch across the heaving seas, I think he might be right. We're closer to the Arctic Circle than we are to London, but our passports are safely at home because we're still in the UK. Just.

Rewind 24 hours and Autocar staff photographer Max Edleston and I meet at Port Edgar, a smart marina just outside Edinburgh, with a plan to drive north until the blacktop stops. Our car for the journey is a fully electric Polestar 2, whose namesake celestial body variously known as the Pole Star, Polaris or the North Star - will guide us there, hanging as it does directly above the North Pole.

We're in the entry-level 2, which means 228bhp, front wheel drive and a claimed range of 297 miles. Limited to 100mph, it's a pragmatic spec for a relatively pragmatic car. As such, the 2 isn't overburdened with modes and I've already found 'mine' - the middle choices for regen (intended to mimic engine braking) and for steering (it's overly light or overly springy otherwise), with step-off creep switched on.

Queensferry Crossing's cables gleam white in the sunshine as we silently span the Firth of Forth, the Polestar's easy-going character immediately apparent. There is a slight bobbing over the M90's smaller ripples as we press through Fife, otherwise it's how exactly motorway driving in an electric car should be: clean and serene.

If we'd been heading for John O'Groats, we'd keep our course at Perth, but we have bigger plans. We veer coastwards past Dundee and on to Aberdeen, the gateway to Britain's most distant outpost: the 100-island archipelago of Shetland.