Subaru XV Hybrid 2020 review

I'm Tom Baker, this is Chasing Cars, and this is the new Subaru XV Hybrid, or Crosstrek Hybrid if you're watching in North America. This is, on paper, a really great little car because it's well-sized, it's compact enough for the city, yet it offers you ground clearance, the ability to do a bit of mild off-roading, as you see here, and the potential of a hybrid powertrain. The success of hybrids as a way to cut down your fuel economy and carbon emissions without really having to do anything different, makes this type of powertrain really appealing. But it is important for hybrid cars to have a strong enough motor and battery that they're able to make a really meaningful contribution to the whole setup. So we're going to find out later in this video if that is the case for the XV. Because what's going on under the bonnet, is there's the standard 2.0-litre engine that you get in the XV normally, and then a 12-kilowatt electric motor is coupled to that to give it a little tiny boost in performance and potentially some fuel economy gains. But we'll find out whether that actually stacks up when we take the XV for a drive later on. But first, we'll do our normal thing. We'll jump inside this very blue, rather extroverted-looking vehicle, check out the cabin and the back seat and the boot space, and then we'll head out on and off-road in the XV Hybrid to see what this vehicle is really like. Before we do that, make sure to hit subscribe and the notification bell down below. Now, let's jump inside the XV. Now, it may be different where you live, but in Australia, there's only one specification of XV Hybrid, and it is actually based on one of the lower-end XV specs, which is a little disappointing because it's quite expensive. It's going to cost you just about $40,000 on the road, and yet we're stuck with the, you know, more low-rent interior from the base model XV. So that means we have this really small 6.5-inch screen. It is still a touchscreen, but we don't have any navigation. The stereo is okay, the multimedia and Bluetooth is okay, and you do have wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so it's not all bad. You look forward at these analogue gauges, which are not specifically customised for the Hybrid, so it doesn't really train you how to drive the Hybrid like a Hybrid wants to be driven to get maximum economy, but we've got a screen in between those, which gives you some trip computer data, and then a third screen up here on the dash, which gives you some of the same data and some other pages as well. So mastering the tech is a bit of a learning curve, but you'll get there. And it's largely controlled through this steering wheel, which is nice in the hand, decent thin rim, got some very cool orange stitching on the wheel, and also elsewhere in the cabin. The steering wheel has a lot of buttons, so you do need to take some time to learn how it all works. I mean, largely the cabin is decently laid out, and it's also reasonably attractive. You have this, like, faux stitching sort of pattern up on the dash. The doors have soft touch material and cloth, and that brings me on to the seats, which are a mixture of this kind of band of leatherette and then cloth in the centre. Now, I love a cloth seat. They're nice and breathable in Australia, which gets pretty hot in summer, and you have manual adjustment in these seats. Now, I think they're a little lacking in lumbar for your back, but otherwise it's not a massive problem, and the practicality is good. We've got massive cup holders, tray ahead of the shifter, big central bin with fast-charging old-style USB ports, and a decent-sized door bin as well. So, the question you've got to ask yourself is whether it's a 40 grand interior or not. I think it could have had the bigger screen and perhaps electric adjustment on the seats, but I could live with it. Let's check out the second row. Now, I've always loved the size of the Subaru XV. I think it's just perfect for, you know, a car that works well running around town, but can also do longer trips, because it's not too small and it's not too big. So, here in the back, I'm six foot, I've got enough headroom, I've got another inch or so above me, legroom behind my own driving position is generous, and toe room is good. Plus, you could get three people across the back at a pinch, since the hump in the floor is pretty low, but most of the time you want to confine the car to four people, especially because there's not really any amenities back here. There's no air vents, which means it's hard to keep that air flowing on a hot day. Never a good idea in Australia. There's no USB ports, we've got harder materials, and there is a flip down armrest, so that's nice. We've got two cupholders there, and the backseat itself is actually quite comfy, and we get all those orange motifs here. So, you know, the interior, I don't have a massive problem with it. It's just, there's nothing that really speaks to you and really shines in terms of premium finishes, but, you know, it's not a premium car. What about boot space? Although the XV is well-sized, the practicality kind of falls down a little bit here in the boot. Nice, light manual tailgate. That's easy to operate and not too high for people to open and close. But the boot itself is small, and that's because the floor is high, and that's not a hybrid thing. The floor is high in the petrol version as well. This car has a proper all-wheel drive system, and all those gubbins take up quite a lot of space. Plus, in the hybrid, there is a tray of batteries underneath here as well. Not many, but that's where the batteries are. And unfortunately, that means that if I move this out of the way, we can see there's no spare. There's just a tyre inflation kit, and as we found out driving the Forester Hybrid recently, if you get a puncture, it becomes a bit of a faff, filling that up with goo and then hoping everything holds. And here in Australia, especially where Subarus are used for longer drives and country buyers a lot of the time, a proper spare is important, and I think that's a bit of an own goal. So, mixed bag on the XV in terms of practicality. Still a good look around the back, but what is this hybrid like to drive on and off-road? Let's find out now. So, what is the Subaru XV Hybrid like to drive? Well, it won't shock you that it's like a normal XV with a very small hybrid system bolted on top. So that means that it makes it feel just a little bit more zippy, and it saves a bit of fuel over the normal car. But because it doesn't have a particularly strong motor, or large battery, it doesn't achieve the same kind of power gains or fuel savings as you'll find in some other hybrids, especially the latest generation of Toyota Hybrid, like the RAV4 Hybrid, for example, which is a lot more powerful and a lot more fuel efficient than the other engines in the range. Instead, you should see the XV as more of a sort of augmented system, which adds on a little bit of capability to the existing motor, rather than kind of replacing everything with new generation stuff. So under the bonnet, we've got a traditional Subaru engine, horizontally opposed four-cylinder, naturally aspirated, 110 kilowatts of power, 196 newton-meters of torque. And then in terms of the electric motor, we've got a 12 kilowatt motor, that's 66 newton-meters of torque. And as you can probably hear, the engine does a lot of work. It's a little bit quicker than the standard XV, which has the same petrol engine, but without the benefit of the electric juice, but there's not much in it. However, you do get a fuel saving. The XV Hybrid in our care has used about eight liters per 100 Ks combined in the real world, compared to nine to 10 liters with the petrol XV. So, you know, there's a saving there. You are reducing your fuel consumption. It's just not a dramatic saving. And given this vehicle is quite expensive, you probably would assume that you'd get something a little bit more serious in terms of the hybrid system. But if what you really want is a Subaru XV, and that's understandable, and you want the lowest possible fuel consumption, well, here you are. In terms of the vehicle's handling, ride and handling, it's ultimately similar to the combustion vehicle. You know, the steering is actually pretty good. The car turns in nice and eagerly. And the ride on the front suspension is absolutely fine. It's plush compliant. The rear suspension's a little bit oversprung, nowhere near the same degree as the Forester though. And as such, the ride is generally comfortable, but it does find hard edges much more easily than you would expect. And in terms of, you know, tackling corners quickly, it's certainly not this car's favourite activity, but it can do it. In terms of refinement, it is quite a noisy vehicle in the cabin. I mean, we're in the XC65, and, you know, you hear the engine struggling and a fair bit of tyre noise. But there are plenty of good things, one of which is that the visibility out is excellent. It's a well-sized car, it's got a massive glass house, big mirrors. You can certainly see all of your surroundings. Plus, it's got lots of safety kit. It's got the Subaru stereo camera eyesight system with adaptive cruise control. It has Lane Keep Assist that detects when you're sort of leaving your lane. It has AEB and rear AEB as well, which is a really important feature on any sort of SUV or crossover. So it feels like a safe car. It feels like a very safe, conservative sort of car. It doesn't punch for massive technical gains or anything like that. It just sort of gets the job done. I think there are more inspiring options on the market, but it moves the Subaru game on slightly. And, you know, any improvement is a good improvement, I suppose. But I think there's probably room for something really special here. Even though the XV Hybrid uses Denso technology, much like Toyota Hybrids, it is a totally different hybrid system. And this car still has conventional all-wheel drive, where it sends power from the combustion engine to the rear axle in a permanent setup, as opposed to running an electric motor on the rear axle, like a Toyota E4 system. And that means that one of the XV's fortes is off-roading. It has decent ground clearance. You know, it's not going to be taking on, serious, serious off-roading work. But in terms of moderate trails, it can absolutely do it, clearing obstacles as you go, thwarting relatively decent puddles and whatnot. And you feel nice and confident. And you have standard X-Mode, it's a special program for the stability control and traction control, and downhill assist and whatnot to help you along off-road. So those are our detailed impressions of the new Subaru XV Hybrid slash Crosstrek Hybrid. This little car feels like it could have been so much more as a hybrid. You know, on paper, it seems great. I love the size, still do. Don't mind the interior. You can travel with four people with no real problems. It's just that because you're never really on EV mode, like you are in a Toyota CHR Hybrid or a RAV4 Hybrid, the fuel efficiency gains are not massive. And because it's expensive, it's just that much harder to justify. So I still like the XV, but I'd probably skip the hybrid and just buy one of the Petrels, which are cheaper and much more highly specified at this kind of price. And I just hope the next version of this car has a beefier electric motor, bigger battery, and a just better all-round hybrid system. Now, let me know below the video all your comments about the XV Hybrid, any requests or feedback on the channel. While you're down there, make sure to hit subscribe. And as always, thanks for watching Chasing Cars.