Sunshine (she/her)
Electric VehiclesKey word is Europe. Because us north-americans are stuck 30 years in the past in terms of transport, but with cars twice as big.
I'm very happy with my 24 solterra, it's pretty much Toyota, but it's the best performing Subaru I've ever had. A shame there aren't more Americans interested in buying them.
We had a loaner vehicle for a weekend, the Crosstrek wilderness, and I was talking with the car brained boss about getting the solterra back, I told him I miss the power, he heard "I'm going to miss the power" thinking the internal combustion engine was in any way an improvement to the all electric, I told him besides the engine noise there is nothing the ice does higher numbers in than the all- electric.
It's half the price of most new cars, and it blows everything but the highest performing cars (and other electric vehicles) out of the water.
even Mexico is building affordable vehicles, I'm driving a 20 year old car
Affordable vehicles are everywhere. The problem is that people want a massive chunk of affordable metal--- and a multi ton electric powered piece of machinery is a bit questionable to expect to be affordable if you still want to pay workers right.
It's easier to build affordably in countries that have lower costs of paying workers.
Its for the best. Their company has been stuck without innovation on extremely outdated powertrain platforms since the early 2000s.
Last time I test drove a Subaru, I said to the dealer: "perfect car for me, except that it uses gasoline", and I left. So I like to think I contributed to this new "EV only" strategy.
Subaru has had an all electric option in the States for 4 years now,
You needed to test drive a car to learn that it was a gasoline car? You're brave for admitting that.
You test drove the car famous for exactly two things, one of which is its boxer engine. What exactly were you expecting if not the famous boxer engine?
Famous for blowing head gaskets.
Ive had way more problems with wheel bearings
I would hope that the dangerously blinding headlights were also a detractor
I've leased a couple of Imprezas the past 5 years. I love the car, it's so small but capable. A couple of years ago when my last lease was up, I wanted to get an EV or hybrid from Subaru but there were no options at the time. Now I'm torn on going with an EV or buying out my current lease (I don't want interior cameras).
I used to drive a forester, what a lovely car. Now driving an EV 4WD. The advent of EV cars has changed the paradigm. A low down battery plus two or four motors for the wheels. The advantages of superior engine placement, transmission, drivetrain is all irrelevant now. I'm likely to stick with Japanese or Chinese simply because of the extra toys that not additional extras.
I thought lots of European countries had upcoming bans on the sale of new ICE cars. So surely this is just getting ahead of that.
Those bans were all dropped due to industry pressure. Subaru is following sales projections and consumer demand.
The industry lobbied hard against that only to realize that with the current has prices people actually start to prefer EVs and people are still wondering why the European auto manufacturers are falling even more behind.
Define 'lots'.
Because around half of the EU (and an even larger share of Europe) has next to zero EV infrastructure in place. Banning ICE cars would be banning cars, period.
If 'lots' is France, Germany, and Switzerland, then yeah, maybe.
I'm Norwegian, and I've had two rowdtrips to the northern part of Italy with two different ECS, a Hyundai Kona some five years ago and a Tesla Model 3 two years ago. No stress, only Italy was a little bit weak five years ago. So things are definitely improving
Banning ICE cars would be banning cars, period.
good policy
That's false. Infrastructure quality varies but it is no problem to drive electric across all of the EU.
UK does or did. Lack of infrastructure be dammed.
I like and completely support the idea, but i was under the impression that the only reason that they're still a bit relevant in europe is the aficionados to the boxer engine. If they only sell rebadged toyota EVs, can they survive? I'm not a CEO but it doesn't seem smart to rebadge half-assed EVs from a company that doesn't believe in EVs.
Just in: Subaru is doing something without Toyota!
So a bunch of uninspired suvs. /yawn
That sell quite well.
I'm interested to know from where you glean this, since "Subaru hasn't disclosed battery capacity, charging speed, or real-world range for this prototype. The company stresses that the test mule's wagon body has nothing to do with what a production vehicle will look like."
Do car companies usually use "test mules" in their marketing imagery on their website 🤔
No
They can hardly make a functional ICE car that wont break down in the first place, so they might as well give up.
Im pretty sure half of their US sales just go to Coloradans that want an “outdoorsy person” brand SUV and dont know any better than to buy one. Theyre like the L.L. Bean of cars, if L.L. Bean somehow made clothes that fell apart within the first week of ownership
And yet you see 30 year old Subarus all over the PNW.
And West Virginia
lol Subaru's absolutely do not fall apart within the first week of ownership. Year after year they're rated amongst the most reliable vehicles. I regularly take my outback wilderness offroad and it does fine, and this vehicle performs better in the winter than anything else I've ever driven- and my job has me in different rental cars for 1-3 days biweekly.
That’s a bold move, considering they’re only just now getting around to making their own EV - their earlier models are all basically rebadged Toyotas, iirc.
Which own EV? All their offering is based on Toyotas platform, or am I missing some news?
Last I saw, Toyota owns like 20% of Subaru and they are "strategic partners".
https://www.motor1.com/news/812601/subaru-ev-prototype-breaks-toyota/
If only the TNGA platform offered 20-30kWh more, the E-Outback would be really compelling
Agreed. I generally like the Trailseeker, but its battery seems way too small.
My mach e gt has similar quoted range, and i find it perfectly adequate. I know subaru owners take their dogs on camping trips every single weekend, but i didnt realize the camp sites were all 2 hours from home.
It’s pretty efficient, too actually! But attach a trailer or put anything on the roof, and the small battery and slowish charging become real limits. Camping and winter driving are also big factors for these vehicles.
It still is a very promising product, I hope it will improve further, its platform came a long way but is not there yet.
Yeah I have a 1.5 hour freeway drive to our weekend ski area and we use a low profile roof box on a crosstrek and get about 26-27 mpg.
Without the roof box and snow tires it gets 31-32 mpg. So I lose at least 15%.
It’s often between -10 to +15°F as well. I don’t think I could make it round trip in the winter. At least with the skis on the roof.
As of last season there was no charging at the mountain. There was a regular Deplorean and one Lightning in the parking lot, but I’m pretty sure the Lightning guy was local.
Side note. The parking lot is probably 40% Subarus. Never seen a B4Xwhatever there.
Do they even make any electric vehicles?
Yeah, 4 of them built on the joint subaru-toyota platform.
Subaru Solterra = Toyota bZ
Subaru Uncharted = Toyota C-HR
Subaru Trailseeker = Toyota bZ Woodland
Subaru Getaway = Toyota Highlander
So no.
They literally make them, sharing a platform isn't like badge engineering. Collaborating with Toyota is why they could make their BRZ so cheap, probably the same thing applies here.
They're working on an in-house platform though, if you want something with more Subaru involvement.
They don't make them. Toyota does.
https://www.subaru.co.jp/news-en/2026_02_04_173507/
edit: solterra is built by toyota, but they aim to make all their own stuff in 2027
and CATL makes the batteries, what's your point.
My point is we have no idea what they'll be like.
large RC cars, like all EVs.
So a bunch of uninspired suvs. /yawn
What were you expecting?
Uninspired SUVs are what people will buy. Once they've sold a few million of those then you can expect something "inspiring".
yeah, bz7 didn't make it, I bet they could do a nice Legacy EV out of it
