The 2024 Polestar 2’s Chimes Are Beautifully Minimalistic
And the turn signal sounds are fun, too.
Electric cars are super quiet, which explains why the sounds of chimes, gear shifters, piped-in whines, and other alerts seem to rush to fill the void of combustion noise. I’m driving a Polestar 2 this week, and the symphony of sounds in this car is melodic and surprisingly delightful.
Forget to buckle your seat belt and the EV sings with an echo of chimes that sound like a beacon from an 80s sci-fi movie. Open the door to hear the call of a soft warning chime. The turning indicator sound is my favorite, offering a distinctive tick…tick…tick.
One Redditor says the turn signals sound like a steel ball bearing bouncing on a glass table. Another compares it to the motion detectors in the movie Alien 2 (I get that, while also wondering how they pulled this particular reference out of the archives of their brain). The one that resonates with me the most is the question from another poster asking “Why does my car have a metronome in it?”
It does sound a lot like a metronome, and it’s strangely soothing.
Polestar has been intertwined with Volvo for more than two decades, tuning and racing Volvo cars before the two united in 2015. It’s no wonder the two seem so familiar in look and feel; that family resemblance carries over to the unique sounds of the Polestar 2.
Here’s the interesting thing: if you dig into the Volvo archives about three years back, you’ll find a video that explains its sound philosophy. The sound designers ventured into the forest (in person, not virtually) and spent several days defining “Scandinavian sound” for its vehicles. They snapped a fir tree branch, recorded the snippet and used that noise for the turning indicator. Listen closely, and you can't un-hear it.
The Polestar 2 itself feels like driving a spaceship, in all of the best ways. It takes off smoothly with a light press of the accelerator and is appropriately serene inside the cabin. You don't even have to press a start button; the Polestar 2 is ready to go as soon as you slide behind the wheel. It's easy to pretend to be a stunt driver when you can tap it into drive and take off with no lag whatsoever.
Or just sit in the driveway and listen to the various sounds for entertainment.
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