For over 50 years, Subaru has staked its existence on separating itself from the crowd. The company’s SUBARU BOXER® engines and standard Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive on every model but the BRZ are unmistakable qualities that have endeared themselves to many loyal buyers and aspirants over the years.
What is it about the new 2023 Subaru Solterra, the first all-electric Subaru vehicle sold in the U.S., that allows it to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ascent, Outback, Forester and Crosstrek – SUVs with adventure woven into their DNA?
I had a chance to get inside the Solterra at a driving event in California that took me off and on the road in a Limited trim, navigating tricky trails and cruising easy-driving highways. But first, a presentation at the Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara from Garrick Goh, Solterra Carline Planning Manager. Subaru had done its homework about where this car would fit in the Subaru lineup and how enthusiastic Subaru owners would be about it.
Goh said Subaru of America researched owner interest in buying a vehicle with a reduced carbon footprint, surveying owners of every mainstream vehicle brand in the United States. The research showed that Subaru owners are more open to EV ownership than most other vehicle brand owners. They are also more likely to drive off-road, traverse any terrain and be active outdoors.
How Does the Subaru Solterra Drive on the Highway?
The first leg of our trip was on the wide interstates and steep, twisting roads through the hills around Santa Barbara and Solvang. Our road tour took us on sections of U.S. Highway 101, where keeping up with the flow of traffic meant hovering around 75 miles per hour. At that speed, the Solterra shines, with no noise from under the hood and only the wind flowing around the vehicle’s aerodynamic shape.
We darted up through the mountain roads around Santa Barbara, with tight switchbacks and hairpins that would challenge any crossover SUV with a conventional gas engine and driveline that conspires to sap the power it generates.
This is one of the Solterra EV’s advantages both on the road and off. Throttle application is seamless. When you need power to exit out of a turn that’s folded back on itself climbing a mountain, it’s there instantly. There’s no lag, no bogging, no downshifting. The electric motors just spit you out of a corner like a watermelon seed.
At 75 miles per hour, the Solterra easily keeps up with traffic and that extra power is ready for passing. Squeeze the throttle and the semi in front of you is in the rear-view mirror.
What Are the Interior Features of a Subaru Solterra?
Inside, the Solterra is going to be familiar to Subaru owners. You’ll recognize the infotainment layout now reoriented in an available 12.3-inch touchscreen, the largest offered in any Subaru vehicle.
And the gauge cluster is all digital, with a series of user-defined screens that can highlight vehicle speed, range and trip functions. It is mounted high on the dash and almost works as a head-up display, saving the complexity of projecting an image on an expensive windshield while delivering important information at eye level.
The steering wheel has an impressive range of motion that allows the driver to set the wheel height so that all the information on the dash is visible over the top rim of the wheel.
Depending on your selected trim level, you’ll get cloth interior or a choice of single or two-tone upholstery trimmed in StarTex®, a synthetic, animal-free material that helps keep the interior free of stains from spilled sports drinks or your favorite muddy canine. Adding to that cleanability, the Solterra’s rear bumper cover is unpainted, allowing dogs to bound into the cargo area without scratching clear coat.
With the rear seats up, the Solterra has more cargo volume than the Forester and slightly less than the Outback. On one of our driver swaps, I sat in the back seat behind a 6-foot passenger in the front. Legroom in the second row was, frankly, massive. My knees were nowhere near the seatback, and there was generous room under the seats for feet shod with hiking boots.
How Does the Subaru Solterra Perform Off-Road?
Our test awaited on Catalina Island. Catalina is a mountain, jutting 2,097 feet out of the Pacific Ocean. About 12% of the island is populated by buildings stacked on top of each other up the hills surrounding the city of Avalon. The other 88% is a moonscape of hardscrabble, blasted mercilessly by nearly constant wind and sun.
The “roads” on this part of the island are dirt trails. A few are wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably but most are one-lane dirt. At one point, we made our way around a corner with the Pacific Ocean a thousand feet below, just outside the passenger window.
Suddenly, a box truck filled the windshield. We put the available 360-degree surround-view camera system to use backing our way a quarter mile to a spot in the road wide enough to allow both of us to pass.
On our left was Water Tank Road. Here was the place where we’d have to utilize dual-function X-MODE®. Goh told us that in the Solterra it’s almost three-function X-MODE because the system also includes Grip Control, acting like an off-road cruise control for both climbing and descending steep grades.
And this grade was capital “S” steep. I have an old 1960s-era Willys at home. Honestly, I would’ve swallowed hard at the prospect of taking that off-roader up this hill, and here we were doing it in something that for most people is going to be a daily commuter. The wheels and tires under us are standard on the Limited trim and weren’t switched out with something more adept at climbing off-road sections like this.
Over the next 2 miles of our trip, the electric motors provided the torque to ascend the loose terrain. That instant throttle response was even more helpful in Catalina than it was in the tight, paved sections of mountain roads around Santa Barbara. In many cases, you’re looking for momentum to carry you up and over hills that you can’t see over. The Solterra makes its own momentum, firing electrons to the wheels that have more grip than the others.
In two of the most challenging sections, we followed an Outback Wilderness, and the Solterra had no issue keeping up. We never touched the underside, thanks to 8.3 inches of ground clearance – which outmatches some “off-road ready” competitors with internal combustion engines, as does the 19.7 inches of wading depth. The short front and rear overhangs mean that you can approach and leave steep obstacles without touching the front and rear bumper covers.
Here’s the truth about an electric drivetrain: In a lot of circumstances, it can not only keep up with a similar vehicle that has off-road capabilities, but it can even do better.
The average EV owner may not expect their electric vehicle to bring them this far or this high, but a Subaru owner is not the average vehicle owner. And nobody expects them to be the average EV owner. They’re going to push these cars to bring them to their favorite outdoor locations – and this one is more than capable of it. The 2023 Solterra is a Subaru down to its bones.
What Options Are There To Charge the Solterra?
The one thing radically different about the 2023 Solterra is how you power it up. You won’t be visiting a gas station at all. According to J.D. Power, 84% of EV owners regularly charge at home.
In the same survey, J.D. Power uncovered that there’s a 361-point satisfaction gap between owners who use Level 1 chargers (which charge at a slow speed and plug into a conventional electrical outlet) and those who use Level 2 chargers (which require a dedicated 220-volt outlet or hardwiring to the breaker panel).
Yet some Solterra owners – like those who live in apartment buildings without dedicated chargers – will use public charging stations. To offer assistance, Subaru of America has partnered with both EVgo and Qmerit.
Subaru owners can opt for either $400 worth of remote-charging credits to use at EVgo’s network of over 46,000 public charging stations across the country, or they can apply that credit with Qmerit to have a Level 2 charger installed at their home.
How Much Roof Capacity Does the Subaru Solterra Have?
Subaru knows that its owners are using their vehicles as a base camp for off-road adventures. Over the past few model launches, the SUVs have been introduced with heavy static load capacity on the roof rails, allowing owners to transport and unfold rooftop tents and sleep up there with up to 700 pounds of capacity.
The Solterra Limited and Touring are no different. Like the product launches for the Outback Wilderness and Forester Wilderness, Subaru had a Solterra on display with a rooftop tent unfolded, ready to offer morning views that no hotel room could ever provide.
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