Have you wondered why a car with performance pedigree comes with a premium price tag?
While some cars are designed to get you from A to B, others are crafted to achieve this in the most fun way possible.
And as we draw closer to an electric era, manufacturers are now tasked with the job of bringing to market zero-emissions vehicles that capture this enjoyment factor.
From SUVs to hot hatches, saloons to hyper machines, a new generation of electric performance car is arriving.
And at the very forefront of this EV performance awakening is Polestar, the Swedish racing brand that's gone from unknown to one of the most identifiable electric car brands in just half a decade.
Freda Lewis-Stempel was invited to the home of 'Polestar DNA' - a winter testing racetrack on a frozen lake in the Arctic Circle - to see how performance EV is developed to emulate the fun factor of a combustion car.
Swedish EV brand Polestar spends months each year testing its performance cars on frozen racetracks in the Arctic Circle - and we went out to join them
'Winter testing is a major task for manufacturers as it's the core to making a car reliable and safe in all conditions,' says Christian Samson, product identity lead at Polestar.
'Car character is vital – that's what makes our cars appealing to customers. As a Swedish-born performance brand, these months spent here play a significant role in shaping our high-performance DNA.'
For Polestar, the winter testing takes place just outside Jokkmokk, a small town of only a couple of thousands inhabitants, located in Swedish Lapland.
Many of the world's top car makers have testing facilities nearby in northern Sweden where their teams spend weeks on repeat using the some of the coldest temperatures on earth to prove vehicle capabilities under extreme stress.
Jaguar Land Rover, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, VW - you name it, they're here. Ferrari too.
In fact, it's become such a hot spot that Automotive News predicts the local economy rakes in €150million each year from late autumn to early spring as marques descend on the frozen lakes and iced roads of the Arctic Circle.
But why does sliding sideways on frozen ice play such a big role in car development?
The Polestar Arctic Circuit has three tracks and a EV-powered village on 1m thick ice in Jokkmokk, northern Sweden (Swedish Lapland)
The whole setup caters for Polestars testing team that descends each year for months to put the cars through their paces to not only make sure they perform as well as possible but are as safe as possible
For this it's probably best to think of a performance car before winter testing as a bit of a blank slate to which you add the building blocks of a really great drive.
Polestar's head of chassis development, racing driver and chief tester Joakim Rydholm explains: 'Out on the ice we drive without traction, ASC (Automatic Stability Control) or ESC (Electronic Stability Control). When we're confident the car is working without any systems then we add them.
'They're support systems not safety systems.'
ASC and ESC (terms used intermittently for essentially the same systems) are computerised systems on modern cars that prevent loss of traction and skidding during sudden turns or maneuvers.
For manufacturers, it is cheaper and easier to use these systems rather than spend time and money on testing cycles to fine tune a car.
Tests range from checking how the cars steers, to front and rear axles balance on the sliding ice, to damper testing because oil has a higher density at colder temperatures.
This is what you're paying for with a premium performance car.
'We could save a year of development, so much time and money, by using electronic aids to support the chassis and hide problems', Joakim confirms.
Instead they spend hours out on the ice, and Joakim will even hang himself out of the moving cars, feeling for vibrations with his gloveless hands in -30 degrees.
'We start in December and end in March', Joakim told me. 'If a car works here, it works everywhere. It's the same thing with driving performance - everything goes into slow motion when you drive on ice and you have lots of time to analyse [bushings, anti-roll bars, springs] and put it together so it feels like the car has harmony and balance.'
It's not just the testing itself either; as well as spending more on development to make sure your car can be relied on in all temperature and climates, premium car brands spend more on the components, Joakim tell us.
'Good components are our DNA too: Brembro brakes, Michelin tyres - we spend time fine tuning the tyres with our supplier - or Öhlins dampers.'
The right kind of dampers for instance can keep your tires in perfect contact with the ground but the wrong ones can make a car lose speed or get too rough.
'To be a performance brand', Joakim continues, 'you need to have good components and thousands of hours are spent behind the wheel to make sure they work in harmony.'
Freda Lewis-Stempel spent hours talking to the team of Polestar engineers and racing drivers led by Joakim Rydholm and driving on the tracks to understand why winter testing is imperative to OEMs
'We start in December and end in March. If a car works here, it works everywhere. It's the same thing with driving performance - everything goes into slow motion when you drive on ice and you have lots of time to analyse and put it together so it feels like the car has harmony', Joakim explains
On a frozen lake that spans as far as the eye can see, is Polestar's Arctic Circuit.
A performance village on ice, the home of Polestar's testing consists of a home base hut for food and working, a WC hut, a sauna hut and ice plunge (this is Scandinavia after all) and most importantly, three 'groomed' ice racetracks.
Designed by Joakim, the Polestar Arctic Circuit is his 'dream circuit'. It's all powered by vehicle-to-load too; in other words the Polestar EVs power the facilities with their batteries.
Track 2 is made for the Polestar 2 - it's the most technical. Track 3 for the Polestar 3 is still technical but faster, and Track 4 for the Polestar 4 is the fastest - the 4 is the fastest car Polestar makes, with a 0 to 60mph time of just 3.7 seconds.
Each and every car is put through its paces on all tracks, though. Because this is where that 'Polestar DNA' is shaped.
The testing facility is also now open to paying customers (over the age of 21) who want to 'perfect their slide, drifting technique, and master the rally driver's 'Scandi Flick'... for €2,500, which is around £2,200.
The Polestar 2 (closest), 3 (middle) and 4 (far) all have a track named after them but are tested on all tracks. EVs make natural performance cars due to their low centre of gravity and instant torque
It's not just Polestar: All major performance car brands including JLR, Aston Martin, Porsche come to Sweden's Arctic Circle for winter testing and spend roughly €150m each year doing so
For us though, before the Scandi Flicks, there was the safety briefing which, if anyone was wondering, did include ice thickness reassurances.
It turns out the ice thickness is on average 1 metre; apparently only 25cm thickness is needed for active driving safety. Even if it was only 8cm thick, a train can run over the ice and not crack it, I'm told. Splendid.
However, the words 'of course ice is a living, breathing material' and that 'seeing and hearing cracks as the cars move is normal' was ever so slightly less reassuring.
Nonetheless, off we went for a few guided laps around the tracks and then it was into the driver's seat.
For the hours I spent on the ice, hopping between the Polestar 2, 3 and 4, switching it up between the tracks, it was bizarre how fast my head found a new equilibrium.
Sliding became the new normal, sideways the new forward.
Because there are no barriers, no walls to hit (you just get towed out of the snow if you do go off), and the point is to put the car on the edge and learn how it behaves (with or without the aids, turning the regenerative braking up or down, or flipping between steering modes etc) you become a much better driver in a very short space of time.
For hours, all I thought as I went sideways around corners was: 'All the way, stay out, apex, apex, looking ahead to the next corner and the next. Be patient'.
And you start to appreciate how the car is feeding back to you: the 3's torque vectoring so when you move the wheel the rear axle will support you, the adaptive suspension on the 4, or the weighty steering of the 2 that made it the original 'driver's EV'.
There's got to be some ice driving equivalent to those corny gym sayings like 'no pain no gain' such as 'no spins, no speed' which conveys the need to keep your foot down to get the most out of yourself and the car.
But it was the hot laps, in the dark with Joakim and his team of racers that evening, when you realised what the true limit is: It's like the ice isn't slippery – they find grip from nowhere.
For them it's one big playground to have fun, to push a car to the limit and to feel every possible inch of the car out.
And, most importantly, to make sure the car is not only as safe as possible, but worth the performance premium.
Tests range from checking how the cars steers, to front and rear axles balance on the sliding ice, to damper testing because oil has a higher density at colder temperatures
'Car character is vital – that's what makes our car appealing to customers. As a Swedish-born performance brand these months play a significant role in shaping our high-performance DNA', says Christian Samson Polestar's Product Lead
So what does winter testing by performance brands give you the driver?
Not only a safer car that can handle all climates and all conditions, but a car that you want to drive. That car we said gets you from A to B and puts a smile on your face.
Polestar told us that the philosophy with testing and tuning a car is that every kind person should feel they are a good driver, and that the car supports you in every situation.
And while the cars aren't cheap per say, you're getting a hell of a lot of performance for a more affordable price than the majority of combustion performance cars.
Many people think that a performance car needs to be a Porsche 911. But in the world of EVs, performance car 'premiums' don't have to be tens of thousands of pounds more.
The Polestar 2 starts from £43,950, the Polestar 3 from £69,900 and the Polestar 4 from £59,990.
The Polestar 4 and the Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet both manage 0 to 60mph in 3.7 seconds. A Porsche 911 starts from £103,700 though.
Many people will continue to champion the combustion performance car (which as we've said still undergo ice testing) but there's no denying that EVs have some undeniable performance credentials: 'Maximum torque from zero' is overused but no combustion-engined car can leave the line with such stomach churning efficiency as an EV, or ensure you'll never be in the wrong gear coming into a corner. Plus there's that low centre of gravity we've already mentioned for handling.
And lots of the acknowledged best performance cars deliver sports car acceleration and handling with day-to-day practicality; everyone loves an M3 Touring because you can practice being a racing driver and then pack the kids off to school in it too.
Performance EVs like the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, Tesla 3 Performance or Polestar 3 and 4 hit that same spot, and they do it without tailpipe emissions: the Polestar 4 has 536bhp, 506 lbf-ft of torque, 367 miles of range and a 526-litre boot.
Polestar's Head of Chassis Development, Joakim Rydholm explains: 'Out on the ice we drive without traction, ASC (Automatic Stability Control) or ESC (Electronic Stability Control). When we're confident the car is working without any systems then we add them.'
The Polestar 4 is Polestar's fastest car and has 536bhp, 506 lbf-ft of torque, and can do 0-60moh in 3.7s. It also has 367 miles of range
If anything is going to prove to people that EVs do indeed work in the cold, then it's driving around a frozen lake in -15 to -30 degrees.
Yes, EVs do lose battery performance and range in cold weather, but they very clearly do work in cold weather.
A few tips to enhance your EV's performance in cold weather from Polestar include: preheating the car before you drive, using eco mode to drive most efficiently and keeping your battery charged.
Polestars, like many new EVs, have a preconditioning function. This allows you to preheat your car so you can hop into a toasty cabin before unplugging, and saving you range. The battery preconditioning will make sure its at the optimal temperature before you set off too improving efficiency.
Using eco mode not only ekes out the range but it is the safest way to drive in snowy and icy conditions too.
Avoiding braking and accelerating quickly will preserve battery charge and keep you from skidding. Although, it's obvious the cars are perfectly capable of taking on snowy conditions at speed.
Longer drives usually require a charging stop or two. So, avoid running the battery below 20 per cent - listen to the car's suggested charging stops and it will preheat the battery for optimal charging when you arrive at your top up stop.