Polestar 2 BST 270

FIRST UK DRIVE Limited-edition 'Beast' tries to tame British roads

- Alastair Crooks

WE all know BST stands for British Summer Time, but in the case of the Polestar 2 BST Edition 270 it's actually an abbreviation of 'Beast' - a name given to a development version of this car that ran at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2021.

The BST Edition 270 was the brainchild of Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, who still drives 'The Beast' around in Gothenburg.

We're behind the wheel of the production model here, which is limited to only 270 units globally. Just 40 of them are coming to the UK, and they're all already spoken for.

So what exactly is this rare Polestar 2 edition? Well, it gets the same 78kWh battery and powertrain as the dual-motor model fitted with the optional Performance Pack. Total output stands at 469bhp, while there's a chunky 680Nm of torque available.

This doesn't translate to that big a change on paper, however. The BST is 0.1 seconds quicker to 62mph than the car it's based on, and has the same top speed. Range drops to 287 miles from Polestar's claim of 367 miles for the Long Range Dual Motor.

These figures make the BST 270 more than a match for a standard Porsche Taycan, though, which takes a second more to reach 62mph and costs an extra £6,510 over the £68,990 Polestar (provided you were quick enough to grab a BST 270). That price tag doesn't account for the optional (£1,000) central stripe, mind you.