Bay Harbour: February 06, 2025

18 <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News Thursday <strong>February</strong> 6 <strong>2025</strong><br />

Agile Solterra a solid first EV for Subaru<br />

SUBARU HAS TAKEN the full<br />

electric vehicle plunge, but it took<br />

some hand-holding from Toyota,<br />

who own a 20 per cent share of<br />

the company, to get them across<br />

the line and into the world of EVs.<br />

Their first battery electric<br />

vehicle is the Solterra, a<br />

Subarufied version of Toyota’s<br />

bZ4x EV, arrived here in March.<br />

Its debut was a case, through<br />

no fault of its own, of being in the<br />

wrong place at the wrong time.<br />

Our EV market had just been<br />

flipped on its ear with the axing<br />

of the previous Government’s<br />

generous clean car rebate.<br />

This scheme meant those<br />

purchasing an EV costing $80k<br />

or less received a rebate of around<br />

$8000.<br />

The EV road got even rockier<br />

in April when owners had to start<br />

paying road user charges of $80<br />

per 1000km. No surprises then,<br />

that EV sales this year have hit<br />

the proverbial wall, and will take<br />

a long time to rebound.<br />

The Solterra not only marks<br />

the debut of a Subaru battery<br />

electric vehicle (BEV) in New<br />

Zealand, it signals increased<br />

diversification in the Subaru<br />

model line-up that will include<br />

Motoring with Bob Nettleton<br />

more hybrid and EV models in<br />

future.<br />

The next one is expected to<br />

be the new generation Subaru<br />

Forester, the likely recipient of a<br />

Toyota-developed hybrid system.<br />

It will be transformational,<br />

with this and other models<br />

hamstrung by Subaru’s seriously<br />

underwhelming hybrid system.<br />

This why they have dialed up<br />

Toyota help get their hybrid<br />

house in order.<br />

A two-model Solterra line up<br />

heads up our market and leads<br />

off with the standard variant<br />

retailing at $79,990. Hard on<br />

its heels is the more lavishly<br />

appointed $84,990 Touring<br />

supplied for this road test.<br />

A two-tone paint option is<br />

available on selected paint colours<br />

to give your Solterra a bit more<br />

visual street appeal.<br />

Price-wise, the groundbreaking<br />

Solterra sits right in the<br />

middle of our EV market, and<br />

faces the heat of rampant discounting<br />

by many manufacturers<br />

to move stock. The Subaru brand<br />

has a strong reputation, putting<br />

it in a slightly better position to<br />

weather this storm.<br />

Both Solterras are fitted with<br />

Subaru’s acclaimed Symmetrical<br />

All-Wheel Drive mounted to<br />

the company’s new e-Global<br />

Platform. Dual function<br />

X-Mode helps traverse tricky<br />

terrain, while 210mm of ground<br />

clearance does its bit.<br />

If a long new vehicle warranty<br />

is important to you, then you<br />

won’t find it here with only a<br />

three-year guarantee on offer,<br />

although it does come with<br />

unlimited kilometres.<br />

Even so, Subaru is dragging<br />

their heels a bit, with most new<br />

vehicle warranties here good<br />

for at least five-years. MG has<br />

thrown down a challenge to its<br />

New Zealand rivals, recently<br />

announcing an industry-leading<br />

10-year/250,000km warranty.<br />

Sitting roughly size-wise<br />

between the Forester and<br />

Outback, the Solterra has plenty<br />

of power and off-road smarts,<br />

according to Subaru.<br />

They reckon this sets up well to<br />

explore more remote areas, if you<br />

are game enough to venture that<br />

far from an EV charger.<br />

I’m not convinced it’s capable<br />

of mixing it in the rough stuff, or<br />

wading through shallow creeks as<br />

reassuringly as its siblings.<br />

It felt like a light duties-only<br />

AWD, happiest on reasonably<br />

well formed tracks, and ski field<br />

roads.<br />

Equipped with dual electric<br />

motors strategically positioned<br />

Ratings out of 10: Performance 8; Handling 7; Build Quality 7;<br />

Comfort 7; Passenger and Load Space 8; Value for money: 6;<br />

Styling 7; Safety – Five star ANCAP crash rating.<br />

Overall points out of 10: 7.5<br />

at the front and rear, alongside<br />

a cutting-edge 71.4kW lithiumion<br />

battery, Solterra delivers<br />

a maximum power output of<br />

160kW and 337Nm of torque<br />

and has an NEDC test range of<br />

485km. In real-world driving,<br />

I found the EV range mostly<br />

panned out at around 350km, an<br />

okay effort, not class-leading.<br />

The test car had more than<br />

enough heft to shift this decent<br />

sized SUV with plenty of urgency,<br />

and surrounds the vehicle<br />

occupants in a cloak of silence<br />

as it does so in lower-speed town<br />

driving.<br />

It’s a repeat performance on<br />

the open road, although the<br />

absence of engine bay sounds<br />

amplifies road noise, with the<br />

tyres a bit chirpy on coarse chip<br />

seal.<br />

Throttle response is<br />

exhilarating. Standing start<br />

acceleration provided by the<br />

electrified system makes most<br />

conventional engines seem<br />

pedestrian. A single-speed<br />

automatic is ultra-smooth and<br />

efficient.<br />

Charging the Subaru Solterra<br />

is easy, with both AC and DC<br />

charging capability. Charging<br />

from 20 to 80 per cent via a<br />

150kW DC charger takes around<br />

30 minutes, whereas via a singlephase<br />

7kW AC charger, 20 to 80<br />

per cent is a more laborious seven<br />

to eight hour haul.<br />

A roomy and welcoming<br />

cabin has an abundance of<br />

usable passenger and cargo<br />

space. Thoughtfully designed<br />

instruments and controls show<br />

plenty of attention to detail, and<br />

are easy to read and use. Stalk<br />

controls for the windscreen<br />

wipers and indicators are all<br />

within easy reach of the driver.<br />

Subaru’s all-electric offering<br />

includes a 12.3-inch touchscreen<br />

with satellite navigation,<br />

the company’s Safety Sense<br />

technology, wireless phone<br />

charging and a panoramic<br />

360-degree view monitor.<br />

The heated seats, two front<br />

and the outside rear seats, are<br />

heavenly on cold frosty mornings,<br />

so much so, that it becomes a real<br />

mental battle to leave them for<br />

the frigid conditions outside the<br />

vehicle.<br />

There’s an impressive<br />

panoramic sunroof, although it<br />

steals a few valuable centimetres<br />

of headroom, especially for taller<br />

back seat occupants.<br />

The Solterra also features a<br />

line-up of leading edge safety<br />

kit including dynamic radar<br />

cruise control and blind spot<br />

monitoring that alerts the driver<br />

to surrounding vehicles that just<br />

out of their view.<br />

The suspension, in unison with<br />

the symmetrical AWD system,<br />

offers confident and sure-footed<br />

road holding on our usual mixed<br />

bag of road surfaces.<br />

With its balance, poise, and<br />

agility, the extra weight of a<br />

battery pack at each end of vehicle<br />

enables it to superimpose itself<br />

on the road. The ride is generally<br />

comfy apart from lapsing into<br />

listless mode over high frequency<br />

bumps common in around town<br />

motoring.<br />

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