First of its kind: Subaru Soltera – just a Toyota bZ4X?

Sunday 14 November 2021

first of its kind
Subaru Soltera – only Toyota bZ4X?

Toyota and Subaru have been collaborating on the electric future of their upcoming cars for some time. Toyota introduced the first build of the collaboration in the form of the bZ4X back in October. Now Subaru is following suit with the Solterra, a hybrid of an SUV and a compact station wagon.

Subaru has unveiled its first battery-electric model called the Soltera in Japan. Visually, it’s a mix of an SUV and a compact station wagon. The five-door model, approximately 4.70 m in length, has a raised body, strong wood panels and a proposed underbody.

Like its tech sibling Toyota bZ4X, the Solterra will be available in either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. In the first case, a 204-horsepower electric motor provides thrust, the all-wheel drive version also has a 109-horsepower electric motor on the rear axle; Subaru specs a system power of 218 horsepower.

Variants weigh in 1930 or 2020 kg. Subaru hasn’t mentioned any performance yet, but this should match the bZ4X, which accelerates to 100 km/h in 8.4 or 7.7 seconds and tops out at 160 km/h.

It has a range of 530 km

A traction battery with a capacity of 71.4 kW was installed at the bottom of the Solterra. According to Subaru’s in-house measurements, the ranges on the Japanese WLTC cycle are 530 kilometers for the front-wheel drive version and 460 kilometers for the all-wheel drive version. Presumably, the same charging technology will be used as its Toyota counterpart, which allows 11 kW wallbox charging, and instead, a 150 kW direct current fast charger. The latter allows the battery to be filled to 80 percent in a good 30 minutes.

Subaru plans to introduce the Solterra in Europe in the summer of 2022. The Japanese have not yet provided any homologation dates or prices for this version. Given the competition, it is likely to be 40,000 to 45,000 euros.