The Solterra has dual 80-kilowatt electric motors – front and rear.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
On British Columbia’s coast, most electric vehicles rarely get a second glance. But the Subaru Solterra got a lot of attention – not so much because it’s electric, perhaps, but because it’s a Subaru.
“My last two vehicles have been Subarus, so I’m curious,” said John Taylor, one of about a dozen people who wanted to know more about the Solterra I’d been driving when I parked near Victoria’s Oak Bay Marina.
Subaru is banking on brand loyalty to draw in drivers already familiar with its off-road ability and safety cred. It’s also targeting new customers who just want an EV and are checking out their options.
“People are buying [most EVs] based on price and range, which is kind of like how you buy a dishwasher,” said Anton Pawczuk, the senior director of product management and connected business at Subaru Canada. “[But] there are still people who want to drive and who want to experience something other than tick those two boxes.”
Solterra sales are split between Subaru loyalists and buyers new to the brand, he said. “Half come in because they want just a new electric car and the other half are Subaru people who are ready for electric.”
Subaru drivers are less likely than most others to make the jump to another brand; in a J.D. Power U.S. study, more than 62 per cent of Subaru SUV owners bought another Subaru for their next vehicle, second behind Honda (64.2 per cent).
Like most Subarus, the Solterra is only available in full-time all-wheel drive.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
Introduced last year, the Solterra – the Japanese automaker’s first and so far only full battery-electric vehicle (BEV) – has been selling reasonably well, if not flying off the lot.
Last year, Subaru sold almost 1,400 Solterras. This year, it sold 2,263 by the end of November.
“They’re doing quite well, relatively speaking,” Pawczuk said. “They’re real customer sales as well. Of those, only three cars have been sold to a fleet. … Some of our competitors are putting EVs into daily rental.”
By comparison, sales of the Toyota bZ4X, the Solterra’s close cousin (the two are built in a joint venture) hit nearly 4,200 last year.
Trunk on the Subaru Solterra.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
Neither of those figures comes close to Tesla’s Model Y, though. Although Tesla doesn’t release sales data, more than 19,000 Model Ys qualified for the federal zero-emissions vehicle incentive by the end of October this year.
But for Subaru, a smaller company than Toyota or Tesla, the numbers aren’t bad.
The 2024 Solterra ranges in price from $56,495 to $63,495 before rebates, not including taxes, fees and $2,295 for freight. Like most Subarus, it’s only available in full-time all-wheel drive (it has dual 80-kilowatt electric motors – front and rear). Its 72.8-kilowatt-hour battery gets up to 360 kilometres in estimated range, although Subaru said that’s conservative.
There have been changes for 2024, including a flat-topped steering wheel that no longer blocks the view of the speedometer and a software update that cuts the amount of time it takes to charge to 80 per cent – to 30 minutes from 60. But the biggest change this year is that Subaru finally started promoting the Solterra – focusing on its safety and off-road cred.
Adventure-ready
Subaru’s latest slogan for the Solterra is “EV meets SUV.” But the Solterra isn’t the only AWD SUV out there – rivals with available AWD include the Model Y, the bZ4X, the Nissan Ariya, Volkswagen ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Blazer EV.
Among that pack, the Solterra doesn’t have the quickest acceleration or the best range – but it holds its own. It was capable, comfortable and confident on highways and narrow, winding roads.
It took torrential rain to see where the Solterra really shines as, well, a Subaru. It easily climbed steep, muddy hills on an off-road course – where, surprisingly, the lack of a rear wiper didn’t hurt rear visibility.
Among the changes for 2024 is a flat-topped steering wheel that no longer blocks the view of the speedometer.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
Even though it was designed in collaboration with Toyota – another journalist there half-jokingly called it the Toyota Solterra – there was plenty of input from Subaru engineers, Pawczuk said.
Boasting Subaru’s full suite of safety tech, the Solterra got the highest possible safety rating – a Top Safety Pick+ – from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Toyota’s bZ4X didn’t make the list.
Pawczuk said the bulk of Solterras have gone to British Columbia and Quebec, the only two provinces with their own zero-emissions vehicle mandates, which penalize automakers if they don’t sell a certain proportion of green vehicles.
Staying the course
BEV sales are still climbing, hitting 12 per cent of Canadian sales for the second quarter of this year, but that’s not as fast as some car companies had hoped. That’s led to some companies, including Ford, to delay or abandon some planned BEVs in favour of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which have an electric motor but can use gas as a backup.
Subaru said it is sticking to plans to introduce new BEVs to meet Ottawa’s zero-emissions vehicle mandate.
While that mandate allows companies to include PHEVs in their tally of zero-emission vehicles, the proportion of PHEVs allowed will decrease every year until 2028, when it will be capped at 20 per cent of what they offer – and, by then, those PHEVs will need at least 80 kilometres of electric range.
The Solterra has a 72.8 kilowatt-hour battery that gets up to 360 kilometres in estimated range.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
While the previous generation of the Crosstrek had a PHEV version, Subaru discontinued it when it redesigned the Crosstrek for 2024.
For now, the Solterra is Subaru’s only electric vehicle, although it will launch a hybrid Forester here next year, Pawczuk said.
While Subaru has no plans to add more PHEVs for now, it intends to add eight new BEVs by 2028, Pawczuk said.
“We’re not going to gamble on the mandates [being amended], so we’re all in,” Pawczuk said. “We’re also building a joint-venture Subaru [and] Panasonic battery factory right next to our plant in Japan. So that, I guess, shows people the commitment.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to state that not all Subarus are full-time all-wheel drive as the BRZ is the one exception and is rear-wheel drive.
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.