As the week comes to an end its time to say goodbye to the Subaru Solterra, the first fully electric vehicle from the brand. If you think you have seen this car before its because its was developed in partnership with Toyota in the same way the GT86 and BRZ. This time it shares its design with the Toyota BZ4X.

Don’t let that fool you since this is still a Subaru at heart, with a class leading 210mm of ground clearance and only AWD options available unlike the Toyota which has a 2WD option.

So how does it perform, to test I decided to take it on a bit of a road trip from Swansea to Cornwall to visit the Eden Project, and a number of National Trust properties a trip many people say is impossible  due to lack of charging and long queues.  I have admit I was pleasantly suprised it drove really well, on the twisty country lanes it felt more nimble that its size suggests it should be.

As for efficiency for considering it was running on 20″ wheels and we were still in single digit temperatures it was achieving over 218miles per charge. On a section 15 miles between 2 National Trust properties it achieved 5mpkwh, from Cornwall to Newport on the motorway it averaged 4.2mpkwh, no doubt in warmer weather this would be a fair bit higher.

On the trip there were no issues finding chargers with the Eden Project have a large number of 22kw capable ones meaning we didn’t drop below 15% charge the whole trip so no sign of range anxiety. We also stopped at some IONITY rapid chargers where it achieved an excellent charging speed peaking at 113kw. so more than enough for 60+ kwh battery.

The tech in the model I tested was good with Harman Kardon Audio, digital rear view mirror and a really impressive 360 parking camera system. During my time with the car there were 2 small niggles the passenger seat does not have height adjustment despite being fully electric and seem to sit quire high.  The other is the in built Sat Nav which for some reason has two different voices so directions are given in one voice and street names and places in another. None of these are deal breakers though.In conclusion if you need an reasonably sized AWD drive with external handling and great ground clearance it’s a great option.

Kevin Booker

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