Co-developed, not badge engineered. That’s how the relationship of the new Subaru Solterra is described to that of its sibling car, the Toyota bZ4X.
The bZ4X is the kind of pragmatic car you’d expect from its maker, and likewise the Solterra from Subaru. It’s a spacious, 4.7m-long electric family crossover of the kind of shape and size many car makers are converging on at the same time for their latest mass-market EV offerings, the likes of the Nissan Ariya, Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID 4, and Tesla Model Y among them.
Like the bZ4X is for Toyota, the Solterra is the first series-production battery-electric car its maker has made. That co-development has obviously led to many of the specifications of the duo to be identical, yet the two do diverge in some key ways.
Whereas Toyota offers a single-motor two-wheel-drive version alongside a dual-motor all-wheel-drive model, for Subaru it’s all-wheel drive only, and unlike in the Toyota, the Subaru’s AWD system is a permanent one thanks to some software changes.
There are also styling differences front and rear, and chassis tweaks, the Solterra given a firmer suspension tune and more weighted steering system, plus an extra ‘Power’ driving mode and some paddle shifters to control the level of regenerative braking.
Although the workings of the all-wheel drive systems are different, the key hardware of the car isn’t: there are electric motors front and rear for a combined 215bhp and 249lb ft of torque. Power is drawn from a 71.4kWh battery that can be recharged at speeds of up to 150kW. The AWD system being permanent marginally hits efficiency, which is rated 3.9mpkWh, while the range comes in at 289 miles.
Our first drive in the Solterra starts initially on an off-road course, which perhaps shows you the positioning Subaru is going for with Solterra: it's very much rooted in the rest of the range in being the kind of safe, secure and adventurous car that can handle the worst of the conditions most of us are ever really likely to encounter in the real world.
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