2024 Subaru Solterra AWD Touring First Test: Small-Town EV

Eighteen years ago, John Cougar Mellencamp wrote a jingle for a Chevy commercial. And if he's hard up for money these days, he ought to give Subaru a call. We're sure it'd be interested in licensing his 1985 hit "Small Town" for a 2024 Subaru Solterra commercial because it's right on the nose.

If not, he should give Toyota a try. After all, the Solterra is a rebadge of the Toyota bZ4X, so the shortcomings are really its handiwork, not Subaru's. It's too bad, because as underwhelming as the Solterra is as an EV, it's a good car.

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What's So Small Town About It?

"My job is so small town," Mellencamp crooned, "provides little opportunity."

The Solterra's drawbacks are correlated almost entirely to its Toyota-sourced EV powertrain. It doesn't go very far compared to other EVs, and it charges so slowly you don't want to take it on a road trip, anyway. "Prob'ly die in a small town," indeed.

The Solterra (and bZ4X) gets only 222 miles of range from its 72.5-kWh battery, which is low by today's standards. Take it out on the freeway and set the cruise control to 70 mph like we do for our MotorTrend Road Trip Range Test, and you'll only make it 196 miles before you've used up 95 percent of the battery and need to find a charger, stat. On the plus side, that's among the smallest differences between claimed range and actual road trip range we've seen.

One hundred and ninety-six miles is the better part of three hours of driving, so you might be ready for a break, anyway. Problem is, it won't be a short break. Whereas the quickest charging cars on sale today will go from 10 percent to 80 percent state of charge in as little as 18 minutes on a DC fast charger, the Subaru says the Solterra needs at least 35 minutes. That's due, in no small part, to its 100-kW peak charging speed—among the lowest in the industry. What's more, that's an improvement. Last year's model needed at least 45 minutes, Subaru says.

Anything over 30 minutes is slow, and the Solterra is even slower. We ran a charging test, and despite the new hardware and software in the '24 model, it still took 45 minutes to go from 5 to 80 percent, and batteries charge faster the emptier they are. Part of the problem was charging speeds never hit 100 kW despite the initial state of charge being so low, even though Subaru says the upgrades should allow it to sit at 100 kW much longer than before. Best we saw was 81 kW. On another charger, it took 32 minutes to go from 49 to 80 percent, and charge speeds peaked at 43 kW. It's the only EV we've tested that we haven't timed all the way to 100 percent because it took so long and other people needed the charger.

We presented this data to Subaru. It told us it would pass it along to the engineers.

With limited range and such slow charging, trying to take the Solterra on a road trip would be an exercise in frustration even if public charging infrastructure was amazing, which it isn't. As such, the Solterra's best use case is as a city car for commuting, running errands, and such. It'd be best to keep a second car in the garage with more range, faster charging/refueling, or both. Assuming you can afford to be a multi-car household, of course. Maybe plan to rent a car for longer trips, if not.

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From the Inside

If you can accept that caveat, there's a lot to like about the Solterra. More than anything, it drives very nicely. Built on Toyota's excellent TNGA platform, the Solterra handles noticeably better than it needs to and certainly better than your average compact SUV. At the same time, it doesn't compromise on ride quality. It really is pleasant to run around town in.

It's also nice to just be in. The interior feels spacious front and rear with plenty of head-, shoulder-, and hiproom in both rows. The seats are comfortable, and even the base models get heated front seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, dual-zone automatic climate control, keyless entry, and more. This loaded model also gets a wireless phone charger, cooled front seats, a bigger infotainment screen with navigation, a premium stereo, a panoramic sunroof, a 360-degree camera system, and a heated steering wheel.

We're fans of the funky, spaceship cockpit dashboard design. But even with the new squared-off steering wheel, some of our staff still found it hard to see the instrument screen. Some could adjust the seat and steering wheel enough to see the screen clearly, while others couldn't find a comfortable position. We also still found the screen somewhat difficult to read due to the small font size and color choices.

The big, Toyota-provided infotainment system is also a mixed bag. The design is so simplified and limited in both looks and functionality that it drew comparisons to the Jitterbug phone for seniors. In particular, the navigation system is slow and clunky, so we stuck to CarPlay and Google Maps. We did enjoy the upgraded stereo, though.

We can't report on the standard Subaru EyeSight suite of active and passive safety features at this time, as the driving evaluation portion of our test coincided with a major days-long storm. This event precluded the use of the new, low-speed hands-free driving mode, as such systems aren't designed to work in bad weather that can obscure their sensors.

By the Numbers

Fortunately, we got our instrumented testing done before the rain arrived. We didn't have a chance to test the 2023 Solterra, but we have tested the bZ4X so we can use that as a basis of comparison.

This car weighed a few pounds heavier than the all-wheel-drive Toyota, but not enough to account for the fact it's 0.2 second slower to 60 mph. Still, at 6.0 seconds, it's plenty quick enough for a compact SUV. In fact, it's quicker than you might think behind the wheel as the throttle seems to be tuned for comfort, so you really have to step on it to get all the power.

One hundred and twenty-five feet to stop from 60 mph is pretty good, considering the Solterra is heavier than your average compact SUV and equal to what a bZ4X will do. We just wish the brake pedal didn't feel so wooden and disconnected. More than that, we wish the heavy regeneration setting was an actual one-pedal driving mode or had the option to be, as right now it lets off the brakes at low speeds instead of coming to a stop. It also turns itself off every time you get out of the car, which is super annoying. It should stay in whatever setting it was left in like every other driving setting.

As with braking, we were pleasantly surprised with the results of our handling tests because the range-optimized tires felt like they had little grip to give and gave up easily when pushed. Despite that, the Solterra pulled more lateral g than the bZ4X at 0.81 average g for the Subaru compared to 0.77 for the Toyota, which is impressive since they're on the same tire. Whatever Subaru engineers did to the suspension worked, because it allowed the Solterra to cut a full second off the Toyota's figure-eight lap time, doing it in 26.4 seconds at 0.66 average g. If you care about the way a car drives, the Subaru is the twin to pick.

Subaru also provides a number of driving modes Toyota doesn't bother with, including several off-road-specific modes to go along with the standard all-wheel drive. Here, again, the weather precluded testing, though we wouldn't recommend you tackle much more than a forest service road, given the tires, the 8.3-inch ground clearance, and modest approach, breakover, and departure angles.

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There's a 'But' Coming

The only problem with thinking of the Solterra as a city car is the price. At $46,340 to start, there are several EVs that'll go farther and charge faster. For the $53,340 this top-shelf Touring model costs, you can get EVs that'll go 50 percent farther and charge in half the time. Plus, the Solterra doesn't qualify for any federal tax credits if you buy one, so the price you see is the price you pay. It does qualify for the tax credit if you lease, so there's that.

Call the Cougar

Here's the thing, though. The average American drives less than 40 miles per day, and they spend, on average, $48,000 on a new car. If you're going to pay that much anyway for a car you're mostly going to drive around town, the Solterra is a perfectly good option. Trouble is, Americans also tend to buy cars based on what-ifs. Like, "What if I need to drive three states over on a moment's notice?" Here again, if you're a multi-car family or willing to rent, this could still work for you if you really like the Solterra.

Mellencamp doesn't like leaving his small town, as his song goes, but maybe he could make the two-hour drive up from his place on Lake Monroe, Indiana, to Subaru's one American assembly plant in Lafayette, Indiana, and record a jingle that extols the virtues of both small towns and never having to buy gas. Solterra doesn't quite rhyme with "small town," but we think the Cougar could pull it off.