Subaru Solterra in-depth review _ Pricing, range, availability and driving impressions

Subaru, it's an outdoorsy brand for outdoorsy buyers, but it's never had an all-electric vehicle to help keep those outdoorsies so great, until now. This is the 2023 Subaru Solterra. It's the brand's first all-electric vehicle, so was it worth the wait, or is Subaru in over its head? What's up, folks? I'm Dave Underkoffler, Editor-in-Chief of Autolist.com, a sister company to CarGurus. We're looking at the Solterra today, and this is an all-new, all-electric compact crossover that Subaru is building in conjunction with Toyota. This version seats 5 people, it's all-wheel drive, and it starts at about $46,000 before any state or federal tax credits. So let's go take a deeper dive. Alright, before we go any further, be sure to like and subscribe to this CarGurus channel, so you can get alerts on all of our future video reviews. So some of you may be wondering just what is so different between this Solterra and Toyota's very similar version, which they're calling the BZ4X. I'm glad you asked. Besides not sounding like my Wi-Fi password, the Subaru comes standard with all-wheel drive and dual motors, whereas the Toyota comes standard with front-wheel drive and a single motor, and all-wheel drive is optional. This Subaru has a bit more horsepower than the all-wheel drive version of the Toyota, and it offers its X-Mode off-road driving system. Inside the car, the 12.3-inch screen that you see on our tester is optional for the Subaru, where it's standard on the Toyota. And in terms of safety, both the Subaru and the Toyota come with Toyota's Safety Sense rather than Subaru's EyeSight system, which it uses on the rest of its lineup. Finally, perhaps the biggest difference between the two cars will actually come down to pricing. Subaru is still eligible for all of its federal tax credits, so you can get up to $7,500 back on this vehicle, whereas Toyota has largely run out of their tax credits, so you won't be able to get the same money back. Just something to consider if you're cross-shopping the two vehicles. All right, let's take a look at some of the exterior highlights on the Solterra. This car comes in three different trim levels, Premium, Limited, and then Touring. This is the mid-range Limited, so it has the LED headlights, you have LED fog lamps. All models will have this nice little pass-through on the bumper. Plastic cladding, too, throughout the entire exterior. The hood is low, and it's good for aerodynamics and for safety. You've got a very large charging door here. It just looks enormous. 20-inch alloy wheels on our tester. Moving to the back, you've got more plastic cladding. Subaru likes that. It gives the car a rugged look. You'll notice the spoiler here comes out quite a bit. That's actually hiding the hinges, so it's better aerodynamics. And if you look in the back window here, you'll notice it's missing a rear wiper. That's on purpose. Subaru says that this angle is so steep, you don't need a wiper. There's a rear spoiler here, and then a diffuser on the underbody for better aerodynamics. And one more thing, you can get a trailer hitch, not for towing, but for mounting bike racks or any sort of accessory hitch. So that's a quick look at the exterior, and it's definitely bold styling. But what do you guys think? Does this fit in with the rest of the Subaru lineup, or is it just too much? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. All right, so with a lot of EVs, particularly Teslas, there's always talk about the frunk. How big is it? What can I put in it? But it's important to remember not all EVs have frunks, as you can see here. This is where the Subaru keeps a bulk of its powertrain. So the Solterra has two motors that combine for a total of 215 horsepower and 249 pound-feet of torque. As I mentioned, all-wheel drive is standard, and also standard is a 72.8 kilowatt-hour battery. The all-electric range on the base model, the Premium, is 228 miles. This Limited and then the high-end Touring version get 222 miles because of their larger tires and wheels. Subaru says that you can fully charge this car in about nine hours using a Level 2 240-volt charger. There's also DC fast charging, which will recharge about 80% of the battery in just under an hour. Subaru is also offering all of its Solterra buyers $400 towards either an in-home charger or towards public charging. One other nice little piece of mind that Subaru is offering all Solterra customers is 10 days each year of a free loaner vehicle for any of its gas-powered cars. And that's nice if you've got a long road trip planned that the Solterra won't be able to charge. You head to your Subaru dealer and grab another car for a few days. All right, let's take a look at the interior of the Solterra. A couple things you notice the minute you get in the car. For one, the instrument panel is this sort of odd floating jet fighter kind of setup. That takes a little getting used to, especially because the steering wheel doesn't come up that high. So it feels like it's kind of in the way, but you do adjust as you're driving the car. Also, you'll notice this is a 12.3-inch screen. That's the biggest screen Subaru has ever offered. That is standard on the Limited and the Touring model. The base model will have an 8-inch screen there. For the most part, there's a lot of really cool storage built into this car. You've got wireless charging for your phone down there. You've got cup holders here. You've got a center console right there. And then you've got storage space underneath this console. But it's missing one key thing that I think a lot of buyers are really going to want. And that's a glove box. There's no glove box here, so that's a little frustrating. Otherwise, the materials in this car are pretty nice. You have this really cool cloth covering across the dashboard. That's a nice touch. The seats look leather. They're fake leather. And that's standard on the Limited model and on the Touring. It's cloth seats on the Premium. On the center console, you've got the gear shifter here. To put it in the gear, you push down and turn to the right. Push down and turn to the left for a reverse. Parking is just a simple push button. And then these buttons control different drive modes of the car. Up on top, you've got the infotainment system and the climate control. And what I really like is that there are physical buttons mixed with the touchscreen, and that's nice. This infotainment system itself was developed by Toyota, and it's really nice. They've used it in some other vehicles as well. It's bright. It's clear. The screen is responsive to your touch. And it has wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. If I had one gripe about this interior, though, it would be the piano black finish on the center console. It looks good when it's clean, but it smudges very easily and shows fingerprints very easily, so I don't love that feature. All right, now to the back seat. So I'm 6'1", and I've got the driver's seat set up where I would have it if I were driving. So I'm basically sitting behind myself, and you can see how much space I have. I mean, it's almost a foot between my knee and the back of the seat. That's incredible. Tons of space, plenty of headroom as well. I also like that the floor down here is flat. So we just grabbed a touring model that's a fully loaded Solterra to show you a few other features that we really like. For one, you've got three-mode heated seats in the back. That's a nice little feature. And you've got a sunroof. Now, it's dual-pane. That's nice. It really opens up the cabin versus the earlier version that we were showing you was kind of dark inside. But what we don't like is that, yes, the shade opens, but the window itself, the actual glass, doesn't open. So that's a little bit of a miss. Another feature that we don't love in the back seat of the Solterra is there's more piano black plastic. As we mentioned in the console, this kind of material can show smudges or dirt very easily. So we didn't love that. We also don't love this flat plastic in the back. This stuff scuffs very easily over the lifetime of the vehicle. So we kind of wish Subaru had chosen a different material there. All right, cargo space. It's a crossover, so you know there's a good amount of utility built in. This has 27.7 cubic feet of space just in the cargo area alone. And then the rear seats are split 60-40 and fold down flat if you need more room on top of that. One thing to consider, though, is that the cargo area height is actually impacted by the really aggressive profile of this car. So just keep that in mind. And another thing, this dust doesn't come standard. We added that during our driving. All right, driving impressions. The first thing you notice when you get in this car is how substantial it is, how solid it feels. And part of that's because of the curb weight. It's 4,300 pounds on the base model, all the way up to 4,500 pounds on some of the higher trims. That's a lot, but you don't feel it. It just feels good. It feels substantial. It feels heavy, almost like a luxury vehicle, and that's nice. 215 horsepower, again, may not sound like a lot on paper, but it's plenty for this car. And it's an EV, so you get all that immediate torque from a dead stop. That's really nice. I will say, while I'm driving, this steering wheel is pretty small and feels a little weird, so that's going to take a little getting used to. The steering feel is fine. In terms of braking, the brakes feel good. Sometimes electric cars, they feel synthetic or mushy or weird if you're used to driving a gas-powered car. Not so here. They feel very natural, very easy to adapt to. Another nice feature that Subaru built into the Solterra is the ability to change the resistance when you pull your foot off the throttle. So you just use these paddle shifters to dial through four different settings of regenerative braking, and that's a nice touch. If those four modes of regenerative braking aren't enough, there's a final fifth mode called S-Drive that you can put the car in, which will get you close, but not quite, to the level of one-pedal driving. Also, unlike other EVs, there are three different drive modes for this car. So it defaults to the standard drive mode, but then you can put it in Power when you really want to scoot, or you can put it in Eco when you really want to get the maximum mileage. One thing that I really like about this Solterra is its visibility. It's very easy to see out of this car, and that's not always the case with cars these days as they're getting more aerodynamic. So kudos to Subaru and Toyota for making that possible. I will say one of my complaints about the interior is that there's no sunroof. This is the Limited model. The sunroof is only available on the Touring. So this does feel a little dark inside, but otherwise, it's really nice to drive. So the Solterra feels quiet and comfortable and smooth on-road, but Subaru still insists some of its buyers are going to take it off-road. So that's where we're headed next. All right, so now we're on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. We've got some dirt roads. We've got some off-roading opportunities to really sort of stretch those Subaru legs and see what it can do off-road. So earlier, I was mentioning the on-road feel of this car. It's solid. It was stable. It was quiet and comfortable. The good news is that definitely translates to off-road. We're on a pretty rutted, loose dirt road right now, and the car feels very much in control. The all-wheel drive gives you plenty of traction, and it's got that solid quality again. This is definitely a Subaru just as much as any other Subaru in the lineup. In terms of competition, the Solterra has a small group of peers, but it's growing every day. You've got the Toyota BZ4X. Obviously, it's a counterpart to this car. Then you have the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Volkswagen ID.4, the Kia EV6, and then the Hyundai IONIQ 5. Now, if you compare those vehicles to this one, this one generally is down in range, and it also tends to cost more, so that's a negative. But it does have more off-road chops, higher ground clearance, and standard all-wheel drive, so that's a benefit. In terms of off-road driving cred, the Solterra has two different driving modes for off-road, which Subaru calls X-Mode. Plus, the Solterra has something that Subaru calls Grip Control, which is essentially five preset ultra-low speeds, kind of like cruise control, for certain off-road settings to keep the vehicle moving steady and slowly. The Solterra will be offered in three different trim levels. There's the base model called Premium, then the Limited, then the Touring. The Premium comes standard with all-wheel drive, the X-Mode, EyeSight safety technology, dual-zone climate control, the 8-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Limited adds 20-inch alloy wheels, fog lights, roof rails, power driver's seat, power liftgate, heated front and rear seats that are also covered by synthetic leather, a heated steering wheel, a 12.3-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system, wireless phone charging, navigation, a Harman Kardon audio, and a 360-degree surround-view camera. Finally, the top trim, called the Touring, adds ventilated seats, a digital rearview mirror, and the aforementioned Power Moonroof. In terms of safety gear, all Solterras come standard with a suite of active safety features that includes Pre-Collision Brake Assist, Lane Departure Prevention, Radar Cruise Control, and Blind Spot Monitoring. There's also eight standard airbags. Another cool feature built into the Solterra is a voice-activated assistant. Let me show you how that works. Hey, Subaru. How can I help you? Turn on the heated steering wheel. Setting the steering wheel heater too high. So it's a little slow in its response, but it works, and it's a nice way to do things without taking your eyes off the road or your hands off the steering wheel. So not only are there dozens of commands that you can give it, but it also knows the difference between the driver's voice and the passenger's voice, so you can each give it different commands, and it will respond accordingly. All right, so after all that, you're probably wondering how much the Solterra costs. I'm glad you asked. The base model starts at about $46,000, and that's before any state or federal tax credits, but it does include about $1,200 for destination. Then the limited model that you saw in red earlier is about $50,000, and finally, you have this Touring version, which is about $53,000. Now, that's a lot of money for a compact crossover, but the good news is that this Subaru is eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit. That's not the case for the Toyota version. All right, that's it. Our review of the 2023 Subaru Solterra. What did we like? Well, it's got great off-road capability, plenty of interior space, and a really quiet and refined ride. What don't we like? Well, it's expensive for what it is, some of the interior materials in the back are a little cheap, and you can't get one this calendar year, so you're out of luck if you haven't already put in an order. So, for the full review of this Solterra or listings of any vehicle that you're shopping for right now, be sure to check out CarGurus.com, and before you go, like and subscribe to this channel so you can get alerts on all future updates. We'll see you out there.