Tun Mahathir Previews Polestar 2, Hopes Proton To Have Its Own EV Soon

Yesterday, the nations former longest reigning Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was introduced to the Polestar 2 by the team from DRB-Hicom. The brand Polestar which was a tuning arm for Volvo cars, has since been set-up as an independent vehicle brand jointly owned by Volvo cars and Geely, the 49.9% shareholder of our very own national car brand, Proton.

According to Tun Mahathir, “the Polestar can go up-to 400 KM with a single charge hence making it run similar like any normal vehicle. To recharge, it takes less than 2 hours to get 100% battery capacity at a fast charger and 7 hours is charged at home through a normal AC charging unit”. He further added that in the current environment, owning an EV should not be a problem as there are more than 1000 charging stations all over the country.

However, Tun Mahathir also points out that EVs, although is the future choice of the masses due to its reduced carbon footprint, is not necessarily the best option as the electricity it requires to function comes from power stations that are a major contributor to pollution. EV’s in most countries have not reached the goal of being air pollution free.

He goes on to add that, eventually we might end up looking towards hydrogen powered vehicles which would still require more studies to ensure its feasibility. For daily city commute EV are still the safest option available for now he adds.

Now, back to the Polestar 2, Tun Mahathir found the design very sophisticated with storage areas up-front (frunk) as there is no conventional engine employed in the vehicle. As for the interior, he finds that the design features are neat and futuristic, where all controls and settings can be made with the touch of on the screen. There are no more switches or knobs on the dashboard like normal cars.

Tun Mahathir, also hopes that PROTON, the brand is extremely dear to, can advance to a point where one day it could also release its own electric car. Guess Tun’s hope is not far-fetched as Proton has set the Pro-Net division up to dabble into distributorship of the smart brand of cars so that the parent company could eventually have its own EV made for sale to the general public.