Subaru Solterra Review 2024

As one of the fastest-growing sectors of the entire car market, you have no shortage of choice if you’re on the lookout for a mid-size five-seater electric SUV. So how does the Subaru Solterra mark itself out from the rest?

Well, thanks to Subaru’s impressive reputation in this area, plus the association with Toyota/Lexus of which the same is true, you can reasonably expect the Solterra to be incredibly reliable. Trouble should be rare, and when it does occur, rectifying it should be quick and simple.

Given Subaru’s form as a producer of rufty-tufty off-road vehicles, you can also expect the Solterra to be better than most electric SUVs when (if ever) you need to venture off-road, although admittedly, we haven’t had the opportunity to test this for ourselves yet.

There’s plenty to like otherwise, including impressive quality, generous equipment levels and a relaxing driving experience.

You have no choice over your powertrain because all Solterras come with the same 218PS four-wheel-drive setup. That means you simply choose between the two trim levels available, and we’d recommend saving yourself three grand and going for the entry-level Limited version. It’s still fabulously well equipped and has a longer range than the high-spec Touring version.

There are two cars that are extremely similar to the Subaru Solterra: both the Toyota bZ4x and Lexus RZ are all but identical, in fact.

This is one of the fastest-growing areas of the car market though, so there are many, many more rivals for the Solterra to contend with than just the in-house mob.

One of our favourite cars of this type is the Skoda Enyaq, thanks to its huge practicality, impressive quality, comfortable driving manners and keen value. Then there’s the seemingly endless procession of mechanically related Volkswagen Group SUV offerings, such as the Volkswagen ID.4, Volkswagen ID.5, Audi Q4 E-Tron, Cupra Tavascan…

The Ford Mustang Mach-E might also have something to say about where your money goes, as might the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Peugeot e-3008.

Subaru owners are largely a very dedicated bunch, but even the staunchest Scooby supporter would have to admit that interior quality hasn’t always been a huge strength for the company. Generally, the firm’s cars have a very robust and hard-wearing feel, but there usually isn’t much in the way of flair or tactility to speak of. 

The Solterra is a little different. Yes, it still feels solid enough to survive at the centre of a mushroom cloud, but there’s also some visual and tactile appeal. Most of the surfaces within your eyeline are a pleasant mixture of high-grade plastic, chic fabrics, metallic finishes and glossy black inserts, and it all looks interesting, cohesive and - most importantly - sophisticated. 

Okay, so you will find a few harder, scratchier plastics if you really hunt around for them, but if you don’t, you’ll never see them, so the premium feeling inside the cabin isn’t betrayed.

There’s one exception to all this, and it’s found in the luggage bay. While the removable part of the boot floor is carpeted, the bits of the floor either side are made from dull, scratchy, low-grade plastic that looks like it would mark easily.

Both versions of the Solterra get pretty much the same infotainment system, which centres around a 12.3-inch central touchscreen display, and has DAB radio, Bluetooth, navigation, wireless Apple Carplay and wired Android Auto. The only difference between the two trim levels - Limited and Touring - on this front is that the Touring has an upgraded Harmon Kardon sound system with eight speakers instead of the Limited’s six, plus wireless phone charging.

Happily, the system is pretty easy to use, more so than many such systems these days. That’s largely thanks to the logical menus and shortcut buttons down the right-hand side of the screen, while the graphics are quick and slick, and the screen sensitivity and reaction times are good as well.

The Subaru Solterra is a big car, so you’d expect it to provide at least a reasonable amount of practicality. And it does, although the boot is a bit smaller than you might think. You get 452 litres of space in the Limited, 441 litres in the Touring, the difference being accounted for by the Touring’s stereo subwoofer that has to live in the boot. That’s adequate, but not exactly game-changing for the class, and several rivals have it beaten.

The space is a nice square shape, if a little shallow, and it’s thoughtfully packaged, too. There’s a space under the floor in which you can store your charging cables, and when you’re carrying bigger loads, you can also stash the fabric load cover under there as well.

Those bigger loads are made easier by rear seats that fold down in a 60/40 split. That means it’s not as versatile as rivals that have a 40-20-40 split, and although folding the rear chairs doesn’t leave you with a step in the extended loadbay, there is a bit of a slope because the seatbacks lie at a pronounced angle.

The rear seats don’t slide back and forth like they do in some rivals, either, but you can recline them slightly for a more relaxed seating position. Unusually, the rear chairs are also heated as standard on both trim levels. 

Where you’ll have zero complaints about the rear seats, though, is on space. Headroom is pretty generous, but the legroom you get is simply huge. A pair of lanky passengers will have room to stretch out and luxuriate, and even a third will be relatively comfortable back there thanks to the wide cabin and a wide middle seat with a flat floor in front of it.

Subaru has, for many years, been a specialist in the realm of off-roading, so it has a certain reputation to uphold. So, while its Toyota bZ4X sister car is available with the option of a lower-cost, front wheel-drive powertrain, the Solterra is offered exclusively with four-wheel drive.

This sees a 71.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack feeding a pair of electric motors - one powering the front wheels and the other doing the rears - and these combine to give a total output of 218PS. This gives the car a claimed 0-62mph sprint time of 6.9 seconds.

Now, both those numbers look reasonably large and impressive, and might easily make you think that rip-roaring performance is what the Solterra is all about. But while it’s certainly no slouch, the reality is actually somewhat more sedate than that.

Primarily, that’s down to oddly slow throttle responses: push the right-hand pedal, and there’s a strange delay of about half a second or so before anything happens. In most cars, when this phenomenon occurs, it’s often down to the gearbox. However, we know that’s not the case with the Solterra because it doesn’t have one: like most EVs, it’s a single-gear arrangement.

Whatever the cause, this pause in proceedings means the Solterra doesn’t feel as brisk or as responsive as it might otherwise, and that applies when you’re pulling away from the mark or picking up speed on the move. However, once the Solterra does finally wake up and respond to your request for more go,, the acceleration you feel is strong, smooth and uninterrupted.

And does the Solterra give you the off-roading ability that a Subaru should? Well, our short drive didn’t give us the opportunity to put that to the test, unfortunately, so we can’t be sure. However, this is a firm that really knows its onions in that regard, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it proved to be quite useful in the rough stuff.

Both versions of the Suabru Solterra get the same 71.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack, but there is a small difference in official WLTP range figures. The Limited version achieves an official figure of 289 miles, but the Touring version, due to its bigger wheels and the weight of the extra equipment it’s carrying, sees a slight drop in range to 257 miles.

Granted, there have been claims knocking around the internet that the Solterra, along with its Toyota sister car, can really struggle to meet its theoretical range figures in the real world, especially in cold weather. To be fair, that applies to pretty much all electric cars to a certain extent, but it might be that the Subaru struggles more than most.

We can only go on what we’ve observed for ourselves. Our test drive took place in chilly conditions, on a variety of different types of road, including quite a few fast ones and a fairly sizeable slice of motorway. Hardly the optimum conditions for maximising range, then, and we saw a return of 2.9 miles per kilowatt hour. Given the capacity of the battery, that would suggest a real-world range of about 200 miles in such conditions. Okay, so that’s not exactly fantastic, but we wouldn’t say it’s outrageously poor compared with other electric cars, either.

Driving the Subaru Solterra is a pleasantly quiet experience, whatever the speed or driving situation. Many electric cars these days try to make things more interesting and theatrical by synthesising futuristic whooshing and wailing noises as you put your foot down - are you listening, BMW? - but there’s no such gimmickry with the Solterra. Instead, you left to enjoy the near-silent operation of the powertrain, and the excellent suppression of wind noise. You do hear a bit of road noise once you make it up to motorway speeds, but that’s largely because of the shortage of noise from elsewhere, and your progress is still extremely quiet and serene.

In recent years, Subaru has made safety a real area of focus for the company, and as such, it’s been achieving great things on that score. Indeed, every Subaru model tested by Euro NCAP since 2009 - the Solterra included - has achieved the full five-star rating, and some of them have ranked among the highest-scoring cars of their respective eras.

The suite of safety systems used in the Solterra is slightly different to that used in other Subarus, because it’s the one shared with the Toyota bZ4X, rather than being shared with the firm’s other models. It’s no less comprehensive, however. The standard roster of safety kit includes seven airbags, automatic emergency braking, radar cruise control, automatic lane keep assist, blind spot warning, road sign assist, rear cross traffic alert, and a whole host of other boringly named driver assistance systems.

We’ve already mentioned that Subaru has a small but extremely dedicated following in the UK, and reliability is one of the main reasons why. The rugged, no-nonsense character of the firm’s cars is backed up by a reputation for mechanical dependability that is consistently supported by hard data. For example, in our sister website’s most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index study, Subaru was ranked by owners as the third most reliable brand out of the 29 considered.

Electric cars should, in theory, be even more reliable than combustion-engined ones because there are far fewer moving parts to go wrong, and that should provide more peace of mind for Solterra owners. So should the relationship with Toyota and Lexus on the Solterra project, because these firms are also consistent strong performers in just about every reliability survey going.

The picture isn’t 100% rosy in this area, though. You see, the Toyota and Lexus versions of this car come with a warranty that could last up to ten years or 100,000 miles if you get the car serviced according to schedule at a recognised Toyota/Lexus dealership. However, the maximum cover you get on the mechanically identical Subaru totals three years or 60,000 miles, whichever happens first. That’s quite a difference.

It’s better news that the car’s battery is covered for eight years/100,000 miles, which is about average for an EV. However, while most manufacturers will only repair or replace a battery if it falls below 70- or 75% of its original capacity in that time, Subaru will take action if it falls below 90%. That should give buyers some extra peace of mind over the longevity of their battery.

The Limited version of the car falls into insurance group 38, while the Touring version falls into group 39. Considering that group 1 cars are the cheapest to insure and group 50 cars are the most expensive, that gives you some idea of where the Solterra sits on the scale. Importantly, those groupings are appreciably higher that they are on most versions of the Skoda Enyaq, which is one of the Solterra’s biggest rivals.

Because it’s an electric car, you’ll pay no VED tax on the Solterra whatsoever. For now, that is…

As of April 2025, electric cars will lose this exemption, and will be taxed at a similar rate to petrol and diesel cars, and those currently cost £190 per year. You’ll also lose exemption from the ‘luxury car’ surcharge levied on cars that cost more than £40,000 when brand new - which both versions of the Solterra do, and by some distance - so you’ll also face an additional charge on top between years two and six of the car’s life. That additional surcharge currently stands at £410.

As we’ve discussed, the Solterra is an expensive car, so you’d hope that it’d come well-equipped as standard, and happily, it does. There are two trim levels, known as Limited and Touring, and both are incredibly well stocked. Even the entry-level Limited car comes with 18-inch alloy wheels, automatic lights and wipers, four powered windows, keyless entry, dual-zone climate control, heated seats in both rows, a heated steering wheel and a powered tailgate. And that’s on top of all the infotainment and safety equipment we’ve already discussed.

However generous the Limited, Touring trim still manages to add a lot more, including 20-inch wheels, a panoramic roof, and leather-effect upholstery, plus the upgraded stereo with wireless phone charging we mentioned earlier.