2023 Subaru Solterra

2023 is the Solterra's launch year and the first year of the generation, and Subaru offered exactly one powertrain — a 215-hp dual-motor setup shared by Premium, Limited and Touring, with no single-motor or high-output variant.

Combined peak of the two permanent-magnet motors, identical on every 2023 trim; available instantly from rest, but a modest headline figure against 2023 electric compact SUVs.

The launch car and the 2024 share an unchanged 215-hp dual-motor powertrain and identical gearing, so the instrumented figure carries across; quick by gas compact-SUV standards but slow for an EV, with thrust tapering well before highway speed.

Single-speed EV delivery is quiet and lag-free with no driveline shunt, but the calibration is deliberately soft and acceleration fades noticeably above 45 mph, short of the immediate, sustained response the top band describes.

A single-speed reduction drive has nothing to hunt for or shift, so delivery is seamless; the 2023 car lacks the steering-wheel regen paddles Subaru added for 2024, and S-Pedal Drive is a strong-regen mode that will not hold the car to a complete stop, so driver control over deceleration is coarser than in true one-pedal rivals.

Subaru of America publishes no SAE tow rating and offers no factory tow package or hitch for the 2023 Solterra, so the honest value is zero rated capacity.

Dual-motor Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard on all three 2023 trims — there is no front-drive Solterra, unlike the Toyota bZ4X twin — and it is backed by dual-function X-MODE with Grip Control and Downhill Assist Control, which is real sophistication rather than basic slip-and-grip.

8.3 inches of ground clearance leads small electric SUVs and X-MODE with Grip Control makes it credible on snow, dirt and forest roads, but there is no off-road trim, no locker, no low range and no skid plating over a floor-mounted battery, and 228 miles of range — less in cold, where the 2023 car's charging was at its worst — limits how far from a charger it can venture.

One powertrain only — the 215-hp dual-motor battery-electric setup with the 72.8 kWh pack — across all three 2023 trims, with no output variants, no single-motor option and no combustion alternative.

EPA combined rating for the volume Premium trim on 18-inch wheels; the 20-inch wheels standard on Touring and optional on Limited cost two MPGe.

EPA city MPGe for the volume Premium trim — regenerative braking makes stop-and-go the Solterra's strongest cycle, as with every EV.

EPA highway MPGe for the Premium trim; the city-to-highway drop is steep even by EV standards, reflecting the tall crossover body and standard dual-motor AWD.

EPA range on a full charge of the 72.8 kWh pack for the volume Premium trim — well short of the 250–300+ miles most 2023 compact electric SUVs delivered, and the defining weakness of the launch car.

Peak DC acceptance quoted for the AWD 72.8 kWh pack, and it tapers early — a low ceiling against 2023 rivals accepting 150–250 kW, and independent testing found the 10–90% average closer to the high-60 kW range.

Subaru's own 2023 figure is roughly an hour to 80 percent, and this is the single specification the 2024 update targeted — pre-conditioning and revised charging logic cut the quoted time to 35 minutes a year later, so the launch car is a full half-hour slower on the manufacturer's own numbers.

EPA estimate at standard assumptions and national-average electricity prices — roughly a third of what a comparable gas compact SUV costs to fuel, and the Solterra's clearest running-cost advantage.

Cheap on home electricity, but the 2023 car is the least convenient version of this generation to keep charged: a 6.6 kW onboard AC charger needs roughly 9–11 hours for a full Level 2 top-up (half the rate of 11 kW rivals), the CCS Combo 1 port has no Supercharger access, there is no battery pre-conditioning so cold-weather DC sessions collapse to single-digit kW, and the Japan-built car lost the $7,500 federal purchase credit under the IRA's assembly rule.

NHTSA tested the 2023 Solterra AWD in its launch year and awarded the maximum overall rating; only the rollover result and the driver-side frontal sub-score fall short of five stars, which is normal for a crossover.

The 2023 Solterra is an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ with Good in every crashworthiness test it was run through, but the award carries a build-date qualifier — only cars built after October 2022 hold the Good updated side rating, so an early-build 2023 is not the same car on paper as a 2024.

Every core system is standard on the base Premium at launch — pre-collision braking with pedestrian detection, full-speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control with Lane Tracing Assist, lane departure warning and prevention, Blind Spot Monitor, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, rear automatic braking and Safe Exit Assist — with nothing safety-critical behind the trim walk; it sits just below the 2024 car, which added Front Cross-Traffic Alert and DriverFocus.

The Toyota Safety Sense pre-collision hardware earned IIHS Superior in pedestrian front crash prevention in both the daytime and the nighttime evaluations — the top result on the scale in use for the 2023 award year, and the nighttime half is the harder of the two.

Blind Spot Monitor with Lane Change Assist, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and Safe Exit Assist are standard on every 2023 trim and the rear system escalates to automatic braking rather than alerting only — broad coverage with no trim walk, short of the 2024 car only in lacking Front Cross-Traffic Alert.

Lane departure warning and Lane Departure Prevention are standard and work on their own, but Lane Tracing Assist — the actual centering function — only engages with Dynamic Radar Cruise Control running, so there is no standalone centering, and reviewers describe the TSS-based centering as competent rather than confidence-inspiring.

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is a standard full-speed-range system with stop-and-go that pairs with Lane Tracing for a workable highway package, but the launch-year car has none of the integration the 2024 added — no commanded lane change, no low-speed traffic-jam assist — so it is capable rather than well-integrated.

No hands-free capability of any kind is offered on the 2023 Solterra — the driver's hands must stay on the wheel on every trim; Subaru's first hands-off function arrived a model year later and even then only to 25 mph.

IIHS rates the 2023 Solterra's headlights Good — required for the TSP+ it holds, which demands acceptable-or-better headlights as standard equipment — and the LED units with automatic high beam are standard from the base Premium up rather than being an upper-trim upgrade.

Thick A-pillars, a high beltline and no rear wiper leave real blind zones, and the camera that would compensate — the 360-degree Panoramic View Monitor — is a Limited-and-up item not offered on the volume Premium, so a base buyer gets mirrors and a backup camera; large exterior mirrors and small quarter windows at the windshield base recover some of it.

IIHS rates the 2023 Solterra's LATCH hardware Good for ease of use — better than the Acceptable/Marginal that is normal in the compact SUV class — with two full outboard positions plus a third tether anchor, though a compact rear bench still makes three seats across a squeeze.

2023 is the Solterra's launch year and Subaru offered it only as a strictly five-seat two-row SUV — there is no third-row or six-seat configuration on Premium, Limited or Touring.

Figure for the volume Premium, which has no glass roof — the panoramic moonroof is Touring-only in 2023 and costs two-tenths of an inch. Adequate but unremarkable for a compact SUV carrying a battery under the floor.

A genuinely roomy front compartment — the flat floor of the e-Subaru Global Platform and the long 112.2-inch wheelbase let the seats sit well back, and 57.8 in of front shoulder room backs it up.

Mid-pack second-row headroom for a compact SUV, and the volume Premium gets the better of the two figures because the panoramic roof that costs nearly an inch is Touring-only — an advantage the Toyota bZ4X twin does not share at its volume trim.

Merely adequate on paper for a 112.2-inch wheelbase, though the flat EV floor and 44.8 in of rear hip room mean two adults sit comfortably; three across is a short-trip proposition.

There is no third row — the 2023 Solterra is a two-row five-seater in every configuration, so buyers needing occasional 6–7 seat capacity are excluded entirely.

The weakest part of the package and near the bottom of the SUV band — the steeply raked fastback tail costs volume, and unlike most dedicated EVs the Solterra has no frunk to take the charging cables out of the load bay.

Even fully folded the hold is small for a compact SUV, held back by a 73.0-inch maximum load length and a load floor that does not fold truly flat.

The two-position load floor, the underfloor tray and the bridged console with its open pass-through shelf are genuinely useful, and door bottle holders and a rear armrest with cupholders come on every trim — but there is no frunk, no household AC outlet and no vehicle-to-load export, and the volume Premium goes without even a retractable cargo cover.

Reviewers of the launch car praise the front chairs for long-stint comfort and the rear bench for headroom and thigh support, but the volume Premium is limited to manual front seats with no power adjustment and no lumbar control — the 10-way power driver's seat with 2-way power lumbar starts at Limited.

A real strength of the launch car: four-wheel independent suspension with internal rebound springs at both ends gives composed highway behaviour, and the volume Premium's 18-inch 235/60 tires ride better than the 20-inch 235/50 fitment on Limited and Touring.

Quiet in town with no engine to hear and a sound-insulation windshield standard on every trim, and the Premium's taller-sidewall 18s help — but wind and tire noise are audible at highway speed, and reviewers specifically attributed elevated noise to the 20-inch wheels on the upper trims.

Unusually well equipped at the volume trim for a launch year — dual-zone automatic climate with S-FLOW, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated mirrors and a wiper de-icer are all standard on the 2023 Premium, plus remote pre-conditioning through the app; only heated rear outboard seats (Limited) and ventilated front seats (Touring) are withheld. Notably the heated wheel was moved up to Limited for 2024, so the launch car is the better-equipped one here.

Premium is both the entry grade and the volume trim in the Solterra's launch year, and at $46,220 delivered it opens above most compact electric crossovers — with no federal purchase credit available to a Japan-built EV after August 2022 to narrow the gap.

There is no drivetrain ladder to climb — every 2023 trim is the same 215-hp dual-motor AWD on the same 72.8 kWh pack — so the volume configuration is simply the base Premium, which is also the only trim EPA rates at the model's best 228-mile range on its 18-inch wheels.

No oil, no exhaust, no transmission service and regen-assisted brake wear leave a light service ledger — tire rotations, cabin filters, brake fluid and tires are most of it — but a tall AWD crossover eats tires faster than a car, and out-of-warranty high-voltage repair on a first-model-year EV is a tail risk no projection prices.

This is the worst line on the car and the reason a cheap-to-service EV is still expensive to own: the launch-year Solterra was shut out of the $7,500 purchase credit, moved on subvented leases, and then had Subaru's own ~$6,500 price cut for 2025 repriced beneath it — real used values are already below 44% at three years and still falling.

Standard Subaru coverage and the segment floor — Hyundai and Kia handed their electric crossovers 5 yr / 60,000 mi of basic coverage for less money in the same model year.

The traction battery and electric-drive components carry the federal-minimum 8 yr / 100,000 mi and the coverage transfers with the car — it matches the class rather than beating it, and Subaru published no separate capacity-retention commitment of the kind Toyota attached to the mechanically identical bZ4X.

There is no factory scheduled-maintenance program — every service visit is out of pocket from delivery — but the launch year carried the model's best perk package: a documented $400 EVgo prepaid-charging credit or, alternatively, a home Level 2 charger installation credit, plus 24-hour roadside assistance for the 3 yr / 36,000 mi warranty term, a Just DRIVE 10-day complimentary vehicle rental, a SOLTERRA CONNECT connected-services trial, four months of SiriusXM and a year of navigation on Limited/Touring. That charging credit is a real dollar benefit the 2024 car did not get, which is what lifts this into the mid band; the absence of any included maintenance — against ToyotaCare's 2 yr / 25,000 mi on the identical bZ4X — is what keeps it out of the upper one.

$46,220 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (37% retained, or about $17,101) leaves about $29,119 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,900 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $34,019 in total.

Both major predictors put the launch-year Solterra below average, and 2023 is the worst of the generation: J.D. Power's predicted-reliability figure is 67/100, inside the "Fair" band (0-69 = below average), and Consumer Reports rates it less reliable than the average 2023 vehicle. The reported faults are consistently electrical and software rather than mechanical — 12V auxiliary-battery drain that strands cars after 48-72 hours parked, infotainment and camera dropouts, and DC charging that collapses in cold weather because this model year has no real battery preconditioning.

At this model year Subaru was solidly upper-mid-pack rather than the outright leader it became a year later — 7th of 24 brands in Consumer Reports' 2023 rankings with a score of 59, well behind Toyota and Lexus at 72, and 185 PP100 in the 2023 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, better than the 192 industry average but only 7th among mainstream brands. The qualifier that matters for this particular car is that none of that standing was earned by it: the Solterra is a Toyota-engineered e-TNGA BEV assembled by Toyota, not a product of the boxer/CVT lineup Subaru's reputation rests on.

The 2023 model year carries four NHTSA campaigns, and two of them are the wheel-detachment hub-bolt recalls that no later Solterra inherits — both flagged "do not drive" by NHTSA, the first severe enough to halt the launch for months and prompt Toyota to offer to buy back sibling bZ4X cars outright. The second campaign exists because the first repair was botched at two ports, leaving 1,182 cars still able to shed a wheel. On top of that, 2023 is inside the range of the later HVAC-defroster and rearview-camera campaigns and inside the 12V charging-system class action, so it inherits every subsequent problem as well as its own.

This is year one of the dual-motor eAxle and 71.4 kWh e-TNGA pack, with no field history behind it and the generation's weakest thermal management: 2023 has no meaningful battery preconditioning, so cold-weather DC charging degrades badly — the change Subaru made for 2024 cut cold-weather charging by up to 80 minutes, which tells you how poor the launch calibration was. No systemic high-voltage pack or motor failure pattern has emerged, and Toyota's deliberately conservative charge curve favours long-term pack health, but the 12V/DC-DC charging system underneath it is the subject of a class action covering exactly this year forward, and Subaru's EV cover is 8 years/100,000 miles against the 10 years/150,000 miles Toyota extends to drive components.

The launch cabin asks $44,995 to $51,995 — two years before Subaru cut the entry price to $38,495 — and reviewers were consistently hard on what that money buys: unpadded hard surfaces high in the cabin, trim pieces described as cheap and hollow, and Toyota's gloss-black piano trim across the console and screen surround exactly where hands land. It clears the bottom band because the design itself is well liked and the touch points that are soft are genuinely nice: a denim-like woven fabric across the dash, soft-touch plastics on the main contact surfaces.

Assembly is a relative strength — the Solterra is built alongside the bZ4X at Toyota's Motomachi plant, the facility Toyota reserves for models needing tighter tolerances, and press reviews praise the build while criticising the materials. It sits below the 2024 car because this year's headline defect was itself a manufacturing-process failure: hub bolts torqued incorrectly on the line and then torqued incorrectly again during the port repair, which is exactly the kind of assembly-consistency lapse this item measures. Owner-reported squeaks, rattles and body-hardware complaints for the generation are real but scattered, and the 25 NHTSA complaints on file for the year are weighted toward electronics and driver-assist rather than assembly.

The service experience inside Subaru's network was best-in-class this year — Subaru ranked highest among mass-market brands in the 2023 J.D. Power Customer Service Index — but the network is roughly half Toyota's size at about 640 retailers and thins badly across the Sun Belt and Plains. The binding constraint for this car is EV competence rather than density: 2023 is Subaru's first-ever BEV, so effectively no retailer had prior hands-on experience with the platform, and the faults owners actually brought in (12V drain, cold-charging behaviour) are ones dealers were demonstrably unable to fix durably on the first, second or third visit.

Routine running cost is genuinely low — no oil, plugs or belts, and regenerative braking pushes the first pad-and-rotor job well past 60,000 miles — but every Solterra-specific part is dealer-only with no aftermarket at all, and this is the first year of a Toyota-built BEV that Subaru sells in tiny numbers, so the parts pipeline was at its thinnest. The high-voltage pack, eAxle, HV harness and the electric HVAC compressor later implicated in campaign 25V577000 are all OEM-only, and out-of-warranty work on any of them is expensive on a nameplate with this little volume behind it.

The $44,995 Premium scored here is stuck with the small 8.0-inch head unit — already dated against 2023 electric rivals, and notably worse than the mechanically identical Toyota bZ4X, which made the 12.3-inch screen standard across its line.

The Toyota-developed multimedia system launched with sharp graphics and quick touch response, and Subaru kept physical knobs for volume and tuning — but the climate and audio controls mix real buttons with capacitive-touch pads that drew immediate criticism, and this launch-year software predates the fixes the platform received later.

Both wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto were standard on every 2023 trim including the base Premium, with no wired-only tier and no subscription — the best-case arrangement, and the strongest single element of the launch car's tech package.

Intelligent Assistant is a natural-language, cloud-backed assistant with dual-zone recognition that handles climate, audio, phone and vehicle information and is standard on every trim — but on the volume Premium the cloud navigation is merely "available" behind a SUBARU SOLTERRA CONNECT subscription, so most Premium owners default to phone projection.

The volume Premium makes do with a plain six-speaker system reviewers rate as merely adequate; the genuinely strong Harman Kardon upgrade is bundled into Limited and Touring and cannot be optioned onto the base car.

A full-colour 7-inch LCD combination meter is standard on every trim with speed, state of charge and range — but it is small by 2023 standards and its low, far-forward mounting to be read over rather than through the wheel drew direct criticism at launch for being obscured by the rim.

The launch car does carry an embedded data connection and Subaru does publish software updates for it, but in 2023 the practical scope was multimedia, cloud services and bug fixes rather than feature-adding whole-vehicle releases — tellingly, the charging and battery-conditioning improvements Subaru developed for this platform arrived as a 2024 model-year hardware and calibration change, not as an update to 2023 cars.

SUBARU SOLTERRA CONNECT covers the EV essentials on the volume Premium — remote start with climate pre-conditioning, remote lock/unlock, vehicle locate, charge status and scheduling — but the services sit behind a paid subscription once the trial lapses, and the phone-as-key Digital Key is withheld from Premium.

Five ports serve both rows on every trim — a front USB-A plus dual front USB-C and dual rear USB-C — plus a 12-volt outlet, which is solid coverage; but Qi wireless charging starts at Limited and there is no household AC outlet and no vehicle-to-load export anywhere in the 2023 range.

Keyless Access with push-button start and power locks are standard across the line and phone-as-key exists in the form of Digital Key — but Digital Key and the power rear door with automatic close and height memory both begin at Limited, so the volume Premium buyer lifts the tailgate by hand and carries a conventional fob.

The hardware higher up the range is good — a 360-degree Panoramic View Monitor and Driver Parking Assistance on Limited, a camera-fed digital rearview mirror on Touring — but none of it reaches the volume Premium, which gets a rear camera with washer and the Parking Support Brake system on a car whose thick pillars and missing rear wiper already limit the view.

No head-up display is offered on any 2023 Solterra trim; the low, far-forward 7-inch cluster is Subaru's substitute for one but is a fixed dash-mounted screen, not a projected display — and reviewers found it harder to read than the HUD it evokes.

IIHS rates the LATCH hardware Good — better than most compact SUVs — and wide rear door openings (41.3-in rear aperture), a flat EV floor, a 60/40 split rear seatback, rear console vents and dual rear USB-C ports make daily seat-and-stroller duty straightforward; what holds it back is 27.7 cu ft of cargo with the seats up and a manually operated tailgate on the volume Premium.

Credentials are excellent and — critically for families shopping the cheap trim — the entire EyeSight suite, Blind Spot Monitor, Safe Exit Assist and Rear Seat Reminder are standard on the base Premium; the deduction is specific to 2023, which carried an NHTSA "DO NOT DRIVE" wheel-detachment recall in the launch fleet's first months.

The cabin itself suits a family — comfortable front chairs, rear console vents, dual rear USB-C, quiet enough to talk between rows — but the launch car is the wrong year to take four people a long way: 228 miles EPA, about 200 miles at a real 75 mph, and roughly an hour to reach 80% at a fast charger, with luggage for four squeezed into a 27.7 cu ft hold.

This is what the Solterra is best at: silent lag-free motor delivery, four paddle-selectable regen levels plus S-Pedal Drive, Brake Hold for stop-and-go, and standard full-speed adaptive cruise with lane tracing — the shortfall against later model years is that even the strongest regen setting stops short of true one-pedal driving, and the hands-free traffic-jam assist Subaru added for 2024 is absent here.

Per-mile running cost is the Solterra's clearest win: 104 MPGe and 31 kWh/100 miles put it far below any gas compact SUV on energy, and EV consumables are minimal — no oil changes and regen-spared brake pads; it is short of the top band only because 104 MPGe is mid-pack among 2023 EVs rather than class-leading.

A 36.7-foot turning circle with a quick 14.1:1 rack and 2.8 turns lock-to-lock makes a 184.6-inch SUV genuinely easy to thread and park — notably tighter than the 40.0 ft Toyota publishes for the bZ4X twin; the catch is that the 360-degree Panoramic View Monitor is withheld from the volume Premium, which has only a rear camera to compensate for thick pillars and no rear wiper.

Subaru publishes no US tow rating and offers no factory hitch for the 2023 Solterra, there is no bed, and 27.7 cu ft of enclosed cargo is small even by compact-SUV standards — it has essentially no work headroom beyond carrying tools inside.

Subaru's brand reputation for toughness counts for something and the EV components carry a long warranty, but this is a unibody crossover in the first model year of a brand-new platform with no fleet history — and the launch fleet's actual record is a wheel-detachment recall severe enough to earn NHTSA DO NOT DRIVE status, followed by a second recall when the repair itself was performed incorrectly. The wipe-clean StarTex upholstery that suits dirty work does not reach the volume Premium's cloth interior.

There is almost no work provision on the launch car: a 12-volt outlet is the only onboard power, with no 120V outlet and no vehicle-to-load export, no hitch, no bed and no upfit ecosystem — and the volume Premium does not even get roof rails, only fixed cross-bar mounting points, so a rack is an accessory exercise.

The car itself tours well — composed ride, comfortable front seats, a quiet cabin and standard full-speed radar cruise with lane tracing — but 2023 is the worst year of this nameplate for actually covering distance: 228 miles EPA that becomes about 200 at 75 mph, a 100 kW ceiling that averages 67 kW in practice, roughly an hour to 80%, and no battery pre-conditioning at all, so a cold-weather stop is far longer again.

Better set up for dirt than any rival small EV of its year — 8.3 inches of clearance, a 17.7-degree approach angle, dual-motor Symmetrical AWD standard on every trim and dual-function X-MODE with Grip Control and Downhill Assist — but there is no low range, no locker, no skid plating under the battery, no tow rating for toys, and the volume Premium lacks roof rails; range and charging keep it close to civilization.

The pieces are there — a 60/40 folding rear seatback, a two-position load floor, an underfloor tray and up to 125 cu ft of combined passenger and cargo space — but the hold itself is small (27.7 cu ft up, about 63.5 folded, 73.0-inch maximum load length), there is no frunk to take the charging cables, no hitch for a rack, and no roof rails on the volume Premium.

The floor-mounted 72.8 kWh pack gives a low centre of gravity and the fully independent chassis, stabilizer bars at both ends and Active Cornering Assist make the launch car composed and secure through corners — but 4,365 lbs and all-season tires keep it neutral and unremarkable rather than genuinely engaging.

A quick 14.1:1 variable-ratio rack at 2.8 turns lock-to-lock gives fast, accurate responses, and reviewers of the launch car specifically credited it with real steering feel — more than most EVs offer — though the unusually small wheel takes acclimatization.

Ventilated discs at all four corners with dual-piston front calipers, plus Brake Assist, Brake Hold and Brake Override, give consistent stops with good pedal feel, and the four paddle-selected regen levels blend cleanly — the deduction is that even the strongest setting is only mild one-pedal driving and will not hold the car to a standstill.

Two permanent-magnet motors through single-ratio reduction transaxles means no shifts, no stop/start and no driveline shunt, and tip-in is smooth and immediate — but the calibration is soft and thrust fades noticeably above about 45 mph, with 50–70 mph taking 3.7 seconds, so mid-range response falls short of the top band.

With no engine there is nothing to drone or shudder — the motors are near-silent under load with only faint inverter whine, and no vibration reaches the pedals or wheel; the cabin noise reviewers do criticise is road and wind, not the powertrain.

A tight circle for a 184.6-inch SUV, helped by the quick 14.1:1 rack and the short front overhang the e-Subaru Global Platform allows — and markedly better than the 40.0 ft Toyota publishes for the mechanically identical bZ4X.

The defining ergonomic quirk is the low-set 7-inch cluster meant to be read over rather than through the wheel, which reviewers found genuinely obstructed at the launch, and the volume Premium compounds it with manual front seats, no power lumbar and a manual tilt/telescoping column — though the commanding seat height and large door openings help.

More pleasant than its compliance-EV reputation suggests — the steering has feel, the chassis is composed and X-MODE gives it a party trick off pavement — but 215 hp that tapers above 45 mph, a 6.1-second 0–60 and no performance variant leave it in the competent-appliance band rather than something enthusiasts seek out.

The base Premium is better equipped than the bZ4X XLE built alongside it — dual-motor AWD and X-MODE are standard rather than a paid option, and heated front seats and mirrors, a windshield wiper de-icer, dual-zone climate, LED headlights, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, blind spot monitor, rear camera detection and safe exit assist all come at the base price. It sits just below mid-band because the content is spread thin over a $46,220 ask and the launch year lacks the roof rails, regen paddles, DriverFocus and expanded EyeSight Subaru added for 2024: the 12.3-inch screen, power driver's seat, wireless charging, heated rear seats, digital key and 360-degree camera all require the $49,720 Limited.

At $46,220 delivered the launch-year Solterra asks near-luxury money for 228 miles of EPA range, 215 hp and a DC charge Subaru itself quoted at roughly an hour to 80 percent, with no battery pre-conditioning — figures the segment had already passed in 2023, when an Ioniq 5 or EV6 charged in about 18 minutes on an 800-volt architecture. The decisive penalty is the federal credit: assembled in Japan, the car lost purchase-credit eligibility under the August 2022 final-assembly rule, so a cash buyer faced a $7,500 gap against a US-built ID.4 or Model Y that also went farther.

Three grades — Premium, Limited, Touring — spread $46,220 to $53,220, a reasonable equipment ladder, but there is exactly one mechanical configuration behind it: one 72.8 kWh battery, one 215-hp dual-motor AWD driveline, no FWD, long-range or performance choice, and no way to pair the model's best range with the Limited's equipment because its 20-inch wheels cost six miles. Freestanding options amount to little more than paint and accessories, so budget flexibility means climbing grades rather than configuring a car.

The Solterra's first full sales year produced 8,872 US deliveries — roughly 1.4 percent of Subaru's volume and its smallest nameplate by a wide margin — with the run-rate holding near 1,000 a month only after the fourth-quarter lease subvention arrived. The year also opened badly: a February recall of 1,182 cars for under-torqued wheel hub bolts, the second such action on the model, carried a do-not-drive advisory and followed the bZ4X's wheels-can-detach saga into the headlines.

Subaru is a genuinely beloved mainstream brand with among the highest owner-loyalty rates in the US and an outdoor/AWD identity a compact electric crossover should trade on directly — the badge helps this car more than the car helps the badge. What holds it to the upper-middle band is that the Solterra is transparently a rebadged Toyota bZ4X built by Toyota in Japan, with no Subaru boxer engine and none of the brand's own symmetrical-AWD hardware behind it, so it carries little of Subaru's engineering credibility with informed shoppers.

Judged on buyer benefit, which is what this item asks, the 2023 was well supported — but unevenly across the year. Cash buyers got nothing from the federal credit at all, while lessees got the whole $7,500 passed through via the commercial clean-vehicle loophole, and after Subaru raised residuals in October the Premium leased near $399/month with nothing down, one of the strongest EV lease offers on the market. It lands below the 2024 car's near-ceiling score because the deep dealer cash and stackable 0% financing came later in the model's life, and because in early 2023 a buyer paying cash simply absorbed the full $46,220.

This is the launch model year of an all-new nameplate and an all-new generation — Subaru's first mass-market EV, on a dedicated e-TNGA platform, with no predecessor to look dated against and no successor in sight. It is held out of the top band because new is not the same as current-tech: the 100 kW CCS ceiling, the roughly one-hour DC charge and the absence of battery pre-conditioning were already a generation behind the 800-volt Hyundai/Kia rivals on sale the same year, and Subaru's 2024 update fixing exactly those charging weaknesses arrived a year later.

The launch Solterra reviewed as competent and comfortable but never the pick of its class, with range, charging speed and thin EV-specific software cited as the disqualifiers in essentially every write-up, and the do-not-drive hub-bolt recall shadowing its first months. It earns a real award — IIHS named it a 2023 TOP SAFETY PICK+ — but the qualifier that the honor only covers cars built after October 2022 is itself a mark of the troubled launch, and there are no comparison-test wins, NACTOY nods or 10Best listings to lift it further.