Solterra unique offering
What’s new?
Spare a thought for Subaru New Zealand, whose Solterra EV was originally expected here some 12 months ago, in good time to make a strong sales start in an EVfriendly new car market.
Instead, with the first 11 cars arriving just before Christmas, and the balance of an initial consignment of 50 landing in the new year, Solterra has launched into the twin headwinds of abandoned clean car rebates and electric vehicle roaduser charges. Tough as this might be on the sales forecourt, it doesn’t diminish the longerterm significance of Subaru’s first fully electric vehicle. To be fair, it is in large measure a Toyota, sharing core underpinnings and many design elements with the Toyota bZ4X, which was similarly delayed in its arrival to New Zealand. The Solterra and bZ4X, which were designed in parallel, are in turn close cousins to the Lexus RZ 450e, which arrived sooner, and was tested on these pages at the start of this year.
Lexus already had a foot in the pureelectric door, having launched the smaller UX300e in 2022. Parent brand Toyota had held back on pure EVs here but was already wellestablished with hybrids across most of its model range, so adding a full electric model was hardly a radical step.
The same cannot be said for Subaru, which had previously done little more than dabble in cars for a fossil fuelfree future. The challenge Solterra must rise to is doubly interesting: on the one hand, Subaru has built its image around vehicles designed for those who enjoy an outdoors lifestyle, immersed in the natural environment; on the other hand, EVs make the biggest positive impact in urban environments.
Subaru, though, is pushing the Solterra as a vehicle that meets its outdoors, lifestyle brief. To that end, it’s been accorded more ground clearance than the bZ4X, and though for the most part it is its Toyota sibling’s mechanical twin, Solterra also differs in being fitted with Subaru’s own XMode system.
Among the other fundamentals, the Solterra is propelled by dual electric motors producing a combined 160kW/337Nm output, and those motors are fed by a 71.5kWh lithiumion battery back. Power delivery is via all four wheels. XMode includes a bespoke dirt/snow mode, and there’s also a special grip control mode, of which more later.
Two mechanically identical variants comprise the range, with the standard Solterra listing at $79,990 and the Touring, as tested, stickered at $84,990.
What does it look like?
Overall, the look is neat and cohesive, albeit with little visual connection to other models in the current Subaru line. If the sharply creased, angular lines of the Solterra put you more in mind of Toyota’s current SUV family look than Subaru’s, that shouldn’t come as any surprise; it’s the former marque that held the styling pen on this project, and for the most part the Solterra and bZ4X share common panels. Subaru goes its own way with a different front bumper, grille, and more prominent Cshaped lights up front. There’s a different lower tailgate pressing at the rear too, enabling a variation in taillight look too.
The usual Subaru pleiades emblem adorns the nose and tail, and the rear features Subaru and Solterra badging in chrome. The charge port is located on the passenger’s side, up front under the APillar.
The entrylevel Solterra sits on 18inch alloys, but the Touring takes 2inch rims shod with 235/50 Bridgestone tyres.
What is it like inside?
Toyota design DNA is apparent throughout the cabin, too, though this time with a Subaruspecific steering wheel, and some customisation of trim surfaces. Up front, a 7.0inch digital main instrument cluster and 12.3inch landscape format centre display screen dominate the dashboard. The steering wheel is squared off top and bottom, which means the driver looks over the top of its rim rather than through the wheel to view the instrument cluster.
The wide centre console is home to the main rotary drive select knob, which is flanked by buttons to activate specific drive modes, camera and the like. The console includes generous storage trays and cubbies, which is just as well given there is no glovebox. Though it’s not as long as a Subaru Outback, the Solterra has a superior wheelbase, and this feature endows it with plenty of room in the rear of the cabin, albeit with a fairly low, slightly kneesup seating position.
The boot space is practically shaped and has an underfloor cubby for storing the charge cables. While its 410litre capacity is adequate rather than spectacular, capacity expands to about 780litres when the split rear seat backs are folded down.
What comes as standard?
The standard Solterra specification includes integrated roof rails, a poweroperated tailgate, keyless entry and start, a surroundview camera system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, hilldescent control, XMode allwheeldrive, LED exterior lights, heated power adjustable front seats, a heated steering wheel and dual zone climate control. The Touring upgrades to a premium Harman Kardon sound system, fits a panorama sunroof, and features a large wireless charge pad, sat nav, LED ambient lighting, and synthetic leather upholstery. Dual USBC ports are provided front and rear along with a 12volt plug point. However, the Solterra misses a trick that would have aligned well with Subaru’s lifestyle credentials in not featuring a vehicletoload facility to allow its battery to power small appliances. A spare wheel is also absent from the specification, with a puncture repair kit supplied instead.
Both variants take Subaru’s Safety Sense and Vision Assist suites. Safety Sense includes radar cruise control, emergency driving stop assist, emergency steering assist, and lane departure alert and assist. Vision assist provisions adaptive headlights, blind spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, a 360degree camera system, and rear crosstraffic alert.
What is it like to drive?
When fellow Drivesouth contributor Richard Bosselman drove the Solterra at launch, the drive route stuck entirely to tarmac. With that in mind, a decent portion of gravel and some gentle softroading formed part of my road test, including a run up Waipori Gorge and across the side of Lake Mahinerangi, and later the same day, from Middlemarch to Karitane, via Ramrock Rd.
Prior time around town and on the highway showed the Solterra’s strengths in more typical conditions.
A relatively highset driving position aids visibility, and one soon gets used to looking over rather than peering through the steering wheel to view the main instrument cluster. The instrumentation is customisable to an extent.
The centre screen shows information clearly, working through the various onscreen menus is quite straightforward, and AndroidAuto connectivity is hasslefree. The fact that
Subaru has not gone silly on button minimalisation aids usability, too.
The test car proved an easy steer around town, and regular openroad motoring was relaxing and reasonably refined, though with some coarsechip tyre noise. Peak outputs of 160kW and 337Nm are relatively modest, but with the instant response and lowdown torque strengths of electric propulsion, the test car felt adequately powerful for everyday motoring, even without selecting sport drive mode.
Ride quality is decent, handling on the blacktop is secure and predictable, the steering is reasonably accurate and well weighted. Paddle shifts behind the steering wheel spokes adjust regenerative braking effort, and the driver can also shortcut to maximum regenerative braking by engaging a mode called S Pedal Drive via a button on the centre console.
This test of the Solterra marked my first drive of a pure EV for a significant distance on gravel, and aside from a lingering apprehension occasioned by the lack of a spare wheel, it was a satisfactory experience.
Running in the bespoke dirt/ snow mode (there’s a deep snow/ mud mode too), power delivery was well modulated. That said, the Solterra feels different from a regular SUV on loose surfaces. This is likely due to the way the two motors separately power the front and rear wheels, and limited foreaft weight transfer when using regenerative braking.
During a relatively brief spell trundling down a lumpy, rutted side track, the special Grip Control mode was engaged. This is basically a slowspeed cruise that maintains a constant speed of between 210kph (adjustable via a toggle on the centre console), maximising traction and allowing the driver to focus fully on manoeuvring the vehicle.
Ground clearance of 210mm set the Solterra up well for tackling rough terrain relative to comparable allelectric SUVs. However, its long wheelbase means the rampover angle is relatively modest, so care must be taken not to bellyout. Roadfocused tyres and the absence of a spare will also limit offroad capability.
A final point to note is that the Solterra is a bit of a dusttrap; dust not only tends to gather in the various panel creases, but also finds its way into the cabin via the door and tailgate seals.
Ease of electric motoring
EV battery packs never fully discharge, and in the case of the Solterra, 64kWh of its fully 71.4kWh capacity is usable. According to the standard WLPT assessment regime this gives it a nominal range of 416km.
Realworld EV motoring usually falls shy of the WLTP assessment, and that was the case with the test car. A return of 17.4kWh/100km was attained driving around town, sustained highway driving delivered 20.8kWh/100km, and that worsened to 24.7kWh/100km on the gravelanddirt component of the test drive.
Depending on conditions, a range of between 280km and 320km therefore seems a likely realworld result on a main highway towntotown run in this part of the world. Recharging is straightforward, whether plugging at home, or via the commercial network. I made use of the latter on test, pausing at Middlemarch midway through the gravelroad drive, and adding 22kWh in roughly half an hour. That recharge was on one of the standard 50kW chargers, but the Solterra is also capable of using faster chargers, at rates of up to 150kW.
Verdict?
Subaru’s first foray into fully electric motoring may owe a lot to Toyota, but there is enough that is distinctive about its look, configuration and drive system to provide unique appeal.