2025 Subaru Solterra

The 2025 Solterra carries over the first-generation dual-motor AWD powertrain unchanged, with a single output figure across Premium, Limited, Touring and the new Touring Onyx Edition.

Combined output of the two permanent-magnet motors, identical on every 2025 trim; torque is available instantly from a standstill even though the peak figure is modest for the segment.

Instrumented figure for the mechanically identical dual-motor car; quick off the line by gas-crossover standards but slow for an EV, and reviewers note the push tapering noticeably above 45 mph.

Single-speed EV delivery is quiet and free of lag or driveline shunt, but the Solterra's calibration is deliberately soft and power fades at highway speed, so it lacks the crisp, sustained response that earns a top-band score.

Single-speed reduction drive with nothing to hunt for or shift; steering-wheel regen paddles (added for 2024 and carried into 2025) give real control over deceleration, though S-Pedal mode will not hold the car to a full stop like true one-pedal systems.

Subaru publishes no SAE tow rating and offers no factory tow package for the US-market 2025 Solterra, so the honest value is zero rated capacity — aftermarket hitches exist but carry no manufacturer rating.

Dual-motor Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard on every 2025 trim — there is no FWD version — and it is backed by dual-function X-MODE with terrain settings plus low-speed Grip Control, which is genuine sophistication rather than a basic slip-and-grip system.

8.3 inches of ground clearance leads small electric SUVs and X-MODE plus Grip Control make 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 an exposed floor-mounted battery, and 227 miles of range limits how far from a charger it can go.

One powertrain only — the 215-hp dual-motor battery-electric setup — with no output variants, no single-motor option and no combustion alternative anywhere in the 2025 range; the higher-output XT arrived only with the 2026 redesign.

EPA combined rating for the volume Premium trim on 18-inch wheels; the 20-inch wheels fitted to Limited, Touring and Touring Onyx cost two MPGe.

EPA city MPGe for the 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 gap between the city and highway figures is wide 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 2025 compact electric SUVs deliver, and the single biggest weakness of the pre-2026 Solterra.

Peak DC acceptance of the first-generation Solterra's 72.8 kWh pack, and it tapers early — a low ceiling against 2025 rivals that take 150–250 kW; the jump to 150 kW and a NACS port came with the 2026 car.

Manufacturer-quoted best case; the improved thermal management and battery pre-conditioning added for 2024 and carried into 2025 also cut cold-weather charging by up to 80 minutes in some conditions, which had been a notorious flaw of the launch car.

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 clearest running-cost win in the Solterra's case.

Cheap to run on home electricity and eligible for up to $7,500 in federal credit, but keeping it charged is less convenient than in rivals: a 6.6 kW onboard AC charger needs roughly 9.5 hours for a full Level 2 top-up (half the rate of 11 kW competitors), and the CCS Combo 1 port has no native Tesla Supercharger access for 2025.

NHTSA tested the 2025 Solterra AWD directly and awarded the maximum overall rating; only the rollover sub-score falls short of five stars, which is typical for a crossover.

The 2025 Solterra is an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ — its third consecutive year — earning Good in every crashworthiness test including the tougher updated moderate overlap (rear-passenger) and updated side evaluations that IIHS made award prerequisites for 2025.

Every 2025 Solterra including the base Premium carries the full suite — AEB with pedestrian/cyclist/motorcyclist detection, full-speed adaptive cruise with lane centering, lane departure warning and prevention, blind-spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, front cross-traffic alert, reverse AEB and safe-exit assist — with nothing core locked behind a trim walk.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 hardware earns Good in the IIHS pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation and cleared the vehicle-to-vehicle bar required for TSP+, with intersection turning support added on top of straight-line detection.

Blind-spot monitor, lane change assist, rear and front cross-traffic alert and safe-exit assist are standard on every trim, and rear cross-traffic escalates to active braking via the Parking Support Brake rather than alerting only; a NHTSA investigation into Solterra/Outback mirrors that vibrate at highway speed is the one caveat.

Lane departure warning and Lane Departure Prevention operate independently, but Lane Tracing Assist — the actual centering function — only engages when Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is active, so there is no standalone lane centering, and TSS-based centering is competent rather than the confident, reviewer-trusted kind.

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is a standard full-speed-range system with stop-and-go that pairs with Lane Tracing Assist and extends into Traffic Jam Assist in congestion — a well-integrated highway package, though TSS 3.0's following behavior draws routine rather than standout praise.

Traffic Jam Assist does allow genuine hands-off steering, but only below 25 mph in stop-and-go congestion on mapped divided highways — it is a traffic-jam feature, not open-highway hands-free driving on the order of BlueCruise or Super Cruise.

IIHS rates the Solterra's headlights Good across every trim — a prerequisite for its TSP+ award, which demands acceptable-or-better headlights as standard equipment — and automatic high beams are standard from the base Premium up.

Thick A-pillars, a high beltline and the omission of a rear wiper give the Solterra real blind zones, and the camera that would compensate — the Panoramic View Monitor — is not offered on the volume Premium trim, leaving base buyers with large mirrors and a backup camera only.

IIHS rates the Solterra's LATCH hardware Good for ease of use — better than most compact SUVs, where Acceptable or Marginal is the norm — with clear anchor access in both outboard rear positions, though the compact-SUV rear bench still makes three seats across a squeeze.

The 2025 Solterra is a strictly two-row, five-passenger compact electric SUV — Premium, Limited, Touring and Touring Onyx Edition all seat five, with no six- or seven-seat configuration offered.

Front headroom on the volume Premium, which has no glass roof, is a mid-pack 38.8 in for a compact SUV — the high battery floor and the low, aerodynamic roofline cancel much of what the tall crossover body promises.

42.1 in of front legroom is competitive for the class — the flat e-TNGA floor and long 112.2-in wheelbase give the driver and front passenger genuine stretch-out room.

Second-row headroom is a respectable 38.0 in on the volume Premium precisely because it has no glass roof; ordering the Touring's panoramic moonroof costs nearly an inch and drops it to 37.1 in.

35.3 in of rear legroom is only adequate for a 112.2-in wheelbase, and reviewers note the raised battery floor forces a knees-up posture that makes the second row feel tighter than the number implies.

There is no third row — the Solterra is a two-row, five-seat compact SUV in every 2025 trim — so it scores in the low band by definition.

Subaru publishes 23.8 cu ft behind the rear seats, at the very bottom of the SUV band — the steeply raked tailgate, the high load floor over the battery and the absence of a front trunk all work against it.

63.5 cu ft with the rear bench folded is near the bottom of the compact-SUV band; the seatbacks do not fold truly flat and there is no frunk or meaningful underfloor bin to supplement the hold.

The bridged center console with a large open pass-through bin beneath it, a covered console box and deep door pockets cover the everyday basics, but the volume Premium does without the wireless charging pad reserved for Limited and up, and there is no frunk, no underfloor cargo bin and no onboard power export.

Front seats are described as decent and well-padded for long stints and the rear bench is reasonably cushioned, but the volume Premium gets manual front seats (10-way power driver arrives only on Limited) and the knees-up rear seating position over the battery limits thigh support for taller passengers.

The volume Premium's 18-inch wheels give it the softest ride in the range — Edmunds calls the ride smooth and comfortable over bumps — but Consumer Reports found the tune marred by short, frequent body motions that make it feel jittery even on smooth pavement, blaming the 20-inch tires of the Limited it tested.

With no engine the Solterra is quieter than most vehicles on the road and second-row conversation is easy at highway speed, but wind and tire roar on coarse pavement intrude more than in the EV6, Ioniq 5 or ID.4, so it lands mid-pack among electric SUVs rather than at the top.

The volume Premium is better equipped than most base trims — heated front seats with an auto setting, dual-zone automatic climate control, heated mirrors and a windshield wiper de-icer are all standard, and app-based remote preconditioning is available — while heated steering wheel and heated rear seats arrive on Limited and ventilated front seats on Touring. What holds it below the top band is the absence of rear climate controls and the subscription that gates remote climate after the first year.

Subaru cut 2025 Solterra pricing hard — the Premium fell $6,500 versus the 2024 car to $38,495, and unlike most rivals that figure already includes dual-motor Symmetrical AWD rather than a front-drive base model.

Limited is the representative grade — it adds the 12.3-inch screen, Harman Kardon audio, power seats, wireless charging and the 360-degree camera that most Subaru buyers step up for, and is where the lineup's content becomes competitive. Premium at $39,915 is the advertised price leader and Touring Onyx tops out at $46,915.

No oil changes, no spark plugs, no transmission service and light brake wear thanks to regen keep the scheduled ledger cheap — maintenance averages about $537 a year — with tires and unscheduled repairs on a ~4,400 lb EV making up the rest. Estimates vary sharply by methodology (CarEdge projects only $1,612 for maintenance alone), so this uses KBB's maintenance-plus-repairs pairing for comparability with the rest of the segment.

This is the Solterra's worst line and it is not close: the $6,500–$7,000 MSRP cut for 2025, $7,500 lease cash on the hood, a soft used-EV market and the loss of the federal purchase credit on a Japan-built car all crush residuals well below the compact-SUV norm. KBB and CarEdge land within a point of each other around 39–40%.

The standard Subaru New Vehicle Limited Warranty and the segment floor — it matches the mechanically identical Toyota bZ4X but is two years short of what Hyundai, Kia and Genesis give on directly competing electric SUVs.

The traction battery and EV electrical components carry the federal-minimum 8 yr/100,000 mi. That is adequate but plainly behind the twin bZ4X, where Toyota layers a 10 yr/150,000 mi battery-capacity guarantee on top of the same 8-year hardware coverage.

Subaru includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance at all, which is the single biggest gap against the otherwise identical bZ4X and its 2 yr/25,000 mi of ToyotaCare. What 2025 Solterra buyers do get is roadside assistance for 3 yr/36,000 mi, a 30-day/3 GB SUBARU SOLTERRA CONNECT trial, a 4-month SiriusXM trial, and up to 10 days of free Subaru Just Drive rental from the selling retailer — a genuinely useful perk for an EV owner facing a road trip, but a short-lived one. The $400 EVgo charging credit that launched with the 2023 car is not part of the 2025 package.

$43,415 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (40% retained, or about $17,366) leaves about $26,049 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,818 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $30,867 in total.

Consumer Reports expects about-average reliability for the 2025 Solterra, helped by this being the settled final year of the pre-facelift car rather than a launch year. Holding it at average rather than above: a documented parasitic 12V drain pattern spanning 2023-2025 that is now the subject of a class action, plus CR still flagging EV battery, EV charging, climate and in-car electronics as trouble spots.

Subaru is one of the strongest brands in the business on dependability — top of Consumer Reports' brand report card two years running and second only to Toyota on pure reliability score, with J.D. Power dependability now well better than the industry average. The one qualifier is that the Solterra is a Toyota-engineered BEV rather than a product of the boxer/CVT lineup that earned Subaru that standing.

The 2025 model year itself carries only two campaigns, both software-remedy rather than structural — a Panoramic View Monitor fault that can freeze or blank the reverse camera, and an HVAC failsafe affecting the heater and defogger — and owner complaint volume is far below segment norms. What keeps it out of the clean band is the unrecalled 12V drain service pattern that runs across this whole generation, and the nameplate's history of the 2022 wheel-hub-bolt stop-sale (a 2023 model year issue, not this one).

The dual-motor eAxle and 71.4 kWh pack are shared with the Toyota bZ4X — roughly three years of field data with no systemic motor or high-voltage battery failure pattern, and a deliberately conservative charge curve and thermal strategy that favor pack longevity. It scores below its Toyota twin on coverage rather than hardware: Subaru warrants EV components 8 years/100,000 miles where Toyota extends drive components to 10 years/150,000 miles, and the recurring 12V electrical logic fault is a real weak point in the same system.

This is the pre-facelift cabin that reviewers were hard on — extensive unpadded hard plastic on the pillars and lower console and heavy piano-black trim — but the Solterra reads better on materials-per-dollar than the bZ4X does after the 2025 price cut, and Subaru-specific touches help: StarTex faux-leather upholstery, heated and ventilated power front seats, and a heated squared-off steering wheel not offered on the Toyota. Soft-touch coverage is concentrated where hands actually land.

Assembly is a strength even where materials are not: the Solterra is built alongside the bZ4X at Toyota's Motomachi plant in Japan, the facility Toyota reserves for models needing tighter tolerances, and press reviews of this generation rarely flag panel gaps, misalignment, rattles or squeaks. Software-side initial-quality complaints — infotainment glitches, dropped phone-projection links — hold it below the top band.

Subaru's network is only about half the size of Toyota's and thins out in the Sun Belt and Plains, but the service experience inside it is the best-rated in the mass market — Subaru took the top spot in both the 2025 J.D. Power Customer Service Index and the 2025 ACSI automobile study. The real caveat is exposure rather than density: the Solterra is a low-single-digit share of Subaru's US sales, so per-store familiarity with the EV platform lags the Forester and Outback badly.

Routine running costs are genuinely low — regenerative braking stretches pad and rotor life well past 60,000 miles and there is no oil, plug or belt service — but every Solterra-specific EV part is dealer-only with essentially no aftermarket, and Subaru's parts distribution for a Toyota-built BEV it sells in tiny numbers is slower and dearer than for its own core models. Out-of-warranty pack or eAxle work is very expensive on a nameplate this low-volume.

Unlike the Toyota bZ4X twin, which standardized the 12.3-inch display from 2024 on, Subaru kept the small 8.0-inch Subaru Multimedia unit on the 2025 Solterra Premium — the trim that carries the headline $38,495 price — so the volume configuration has one of the smallest screens in the segment.

The underlying Subaru/Toyota multimedia software is quick and logically laid out and Subaru retained physical climate controls and a volume knob, but the Premium's 8.0-inch panel is small and lower-resolution than the class norm, and dropping to it also drops the cloud navigation and "Hey, Subaru" assistant that make the 12.3-inch system worth using.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are standard on every 2025 trim including the base Premium — there is no wired-only configuration — which matters more than usual here because phone projection is how Premium buyers get navigation at all.

Subaru's cloud-connected navigation and the natural-language "Hey, Subaru" Intelligent Assistant — which can find charging stations as well as handle climate and media — are genuinely capable, but they belong to the 12.3-inch system, so the volume Premium is left with basic embedded voice commands and no native maps, relying on CarPlay or Android Auto instead.

The Premium makes do with a modest six-speaker system, but the step up is unusually strong for the class: an 11-speaker, 576-watt Harman Kardon setup is standard — not optional — on Limited, Touring and Touring Onyx, so the premium audio is widely available rather than a top-trim-only extra.

A 7.0-inch full-digital combination meter is standard on every trim, but its placement is the most-criticized element of the car: it sits high and far forward to be read over the steering wheel rather than through it, and it is small and lightly configurable by 2025 standards.

The Solterra's telematics unit does deliver over-the-air updates, but in practice they cover the multimedia system and connected services only — drivetrain, battery and ADAS control software still require a dealer visit, which is well short of the whole-vehicle OTA that defines the EV segment's leaders.

The Subaru Solterra Connect app covers the EV essentials — remote climate preconditioning, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, charge status and charge scheduling — and Digital Key turns a phone into the key, but Digital Key is restricted to Limited and above and the remote functions fall behind a roughly $8/month Remote Connect subscription once the complimentary year ends.

Five USB points serve both rows on every trim — one USB-A and two USB-C up front, two USB-C in the second row — which is solid coverage, but the volume Premium goes without the wireless charging pad that Limited makes standard, and no 2025 Solterra offers a household AC outlet or vehicle-to-load power export.

Proximity keyless access and push-button start are standard across the range and app-based remote start is available, but the conveniences that lift a car into the top band are all trim-gated: the power rear gate arrives on Limited, phone-as-key Digital Key on Limited, and smart-key access at every door only on Touring.

Every Solterra gets a rear camera plus front and rear parking sensors with Parking Support Brake automatic braking, but the 360-degree Panoramic View Monitor and the Advanced Park semi-automated parking system are both restricted to Limited and above — so the volume Premium relies on a single rear view in a car with thick pillars and no rear wiper.

No projected head-up display is offered on any 2025 Solterra trim, at any price. The high-mounted 7.0-inch digital cluster is sometimes described as HUD-like because it sits near the base of the windshield, but it is a conventional screen, not a projection.

Child-seat hardware is a genuine strength — IIHS rates the Solterra's LATCH ease of use Good, better than most compact SUVs — and wide-opening rear doors over a flat EV floor make buckling in easy. The limits are dimensional: 35.3 in of rear legroom is tight once a rear-facing seat pushes the front seat forward, and 23.8 cu ft behind the bench is a small hold for a stroller plus a week's gear.

This is the Solterra's strongest family argument and it costs nothing extra: 5-star NHTSA overall, a third consecutive IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+, and the complete EyeSight suite — AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, full-speed adaptive cruise with lane tracing, blind-spot monitor, front and rear cross-traffic alert, safe-exit assist and a rear-seat reminder — all standard on the $38,495 Premium that families actually buy.

The cabin is quiet and the second row gets two USB-C ports, with heated outboard rear seats from Limited, but a family of four's long weekend runs into two hard limits: 227 miles of EPA range with a 100 kW charging ceiling means a real stop every two-and-a-half hours, and 23.8 cu ft of cargo with everyone aboard fills quickly. There are no rear climate controls and no rear-seat entertainment.

Commuting is what the Solterra does best: silent single-speed delivery, 249 lb-ft available instantly for city gaps, light steering, standard full-speed adaptive cruise with stop-and-go, and steering-wheel paddles that let the driver dial regen up or down in traffic. It stops short of the top band because S-Pedal Drive will not hold the car to a complete standstill, so a foot on the brake pedal is still required at every light.

Per-mile running cost is the clearest win in the Solterra's case — roughly a third of what a comparable gas compact SUV burns — with no oil changes, no spark plugs, no transmission service and regen sparing the brake pads. What keeps it just off the top band is the tire and consumable bill on a 4,365 lb AWD crossover and the 6.6 kW onboard charger that makes overnight Level 2 slower than in most rivals.

At 184.6 in long on a 36.7 ft turning circle the Solterra slots into ordinary city spaces easily, and light steering plus standard front and rear parking sensors with Parking Support Brake help. Against that, the thick rear pillars, the high tail and the omission of a rear wiper hurt visibility, and the volume Premium cannot be had with the 360-degree camera or the Advanced Park system that would offset it.

Subaru publishes no SAE tow rating and offers no factory hitch for the US-market 2025 Solterra, so there is no trailer, no hitch-mounted work gear and no rated capacity of any kind. What remains is 23.8 cu ft of enclosed cargo in a unibody crossover — errand duty, not work duty.

Subaru's all-weather reputation, dual-function X-MODE and an 8-year/100,000-mile battery and EV-component warranty count for something, and StarTex water-repellent upholstery on Limited and above wipes clean. But this is a soft-road crossover on a dedicated EV platform with an unprotected floor-mounted battery, low-profile 20-inch tires on most trims and no fleet or commercial history to draw on.

Standard roof rails rated to 700 lb static give the Solterra one real provision the bZ4X's base trim lacks, and Subaru's accessory catalog covers crossbars, cargo trays and hitch-style bike carriers. Everything else a jobsite needs is missing: no 120V outlet or vehicle-to-load export, no factory hitch or tow rating, no bed, and no upfit ecosystem.

The car itself is a decent highway tourer — quiet, well-damped, with full-speed adaptive cruise and lane tracing to cut fatigue — but the charging story undermines it. 227 miles of EPA range is short for 2025, the pack accepts only about 100 kW and tapers early so a 10-80% stop takes roughly 35 minutes, and the CCS Combo 1 port has no native Tesla Supercharger access, leaving the thinner CCS network to plan around.

For light off-pavement work the Solterra is unusually well set up for an electric crossover: 8.3 inches of ground clearance leads the small-EV field, dual-motor Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard on every trim rather than a paid option, dual-function X-MODE with Grip Control handles snow, dirt, deep snow and mud, and roof rails come standard for a box or a bike rack. The ceiling is set by what it cannot do — no tow rating for toys, no low range or skid plating, and 227 miles of range that shrinks with a roof load and keeps it close to charging infrastructure.

The 60/40 rear bench opens 23.8 cu ft out to 63.5 and standard roof rails add a second plane for bulky gear, which covers ordinary luggage. Beyond that the flexibility runs out: no frunk, no meaningful underfloor bin, no hitch for a cargo tray, seatbacks that do not fold truly flat, and a retractable cargo cover reserved for the Touring.

The floor-mounted 72.8 kWh pack gives a low center of gravity and the dual-motor AWD produces secure, predictable grip in all weather, but the MacPherson-strut front and multi-link rear suspension is tuned for comfort: it leans noticeably in corners and Consumer Reports found short, frequent body motions that make it feel jittery even on smooth pavement. Competent and safe, a clear step behind the Ioniq 5, EV6 and Mach-E.

Steering is light and accurate enough that parking and lane placement take no thought, but reviewers consistently call it numb, and the small squared-off wheel — chosen so the high-mounted cluster can be read over it — feels awkward in the hands until you adapt to it.

Stopping distances are competitive for the class and the friction/regen handoff avoids the grabbiness that spoils many EVs, helped by steering-wheel paddles that let the driver choose regen strength rather than fighting a fixed map. The pedal is still soft and a little inconsistent, and S-Pedal Drive stops short of true one-pedal driving — it will not hold the car at a standstill.

Single-speed direct drive means seamless, lag-free, shift-free delivery with no stop/start shudder and easy tip-in modulation around town, and 249 lb-ft from a standstill makes it feel brisker than its 6.1-second 0-60 suggests. It falls short of the best-calibrated EVs only because thrust tapers noticeably above about 45 mph, so highway passing needs planning.

There is essentially no drivetrain vibration through the controls and motor whine under hard acceleration is faint and well isolated. It sits just below the class best because wind and tire noise become the dominant sounds at highway speed rather than being suppressed outright.

Subaru publishes 36.7 ft curb-to-curb for the 2025 Solterra — tidy for a compact SUV on a 112.2-in wheelbase, and one of the reasons the car is easy to thread through a parking garage despite its EV-platform proportions.

The signature flaw is the 7.0-inch cluster mounted high and far forward to be read over the wheel rather than through it: taller drivers must choose between seeing the gauges and a comfortable wheel height, and the small squared-off rim exists to serve that layout. Seat comfort, retained physical climate controls and forward sightlines are otherwise fine, but the volume Premium's manual front seats limit the adjustment range.

Quiet, smooth and easy, but there is little here to seek out a back road for: 6.1 seconds to 60 mph is unremarkable for an EV at this price, the chassis is tuned for comfort and leans in corners, and power fades above 45 mph. The regen paddles are the one genuinely engaging control. Reviewers describe it as comfortable and competent rather than memorable.

The $38,495 Premium is the only electric SUV near that money with dual-motor Symmetrical AWD, 8.3 inches of ground clearance and dual-function X-MODE as standard rather than a $2,000-plus option, and it adds the full EyeSight suite, heated front seats, dual-zone climate, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, LED headlights, heated mirrors and a wiper de-icer. It falls short of the top band on screen and convenience content: the base car gets only an 8.0-inch display where the mechanically identical, cheaper bZ4X gives 12.3 inches standard, and power seats, wireless charging, the 360-degree camera and the Harman Kardon audio all wait for the Limited.

The 2025 price cut of $6,500–$7,000 transformed the arithmetic: an AWD, EyeSight-equipped electric SUV at $39,915 delivered undercuts an AWD Ioniq 5, EV6 or ID.4 while giving away nothing on drivetrain. What keeps it out of the standout band is capability rather than content — roughly 222–227 miles of EPA range, a DC peak that needs about 35 minutes for 10–80%, no NACS port, and no eligibility for the $7,500 federal purchase credit because the car is built in Japan, so only lessees ever saw that money.

Four grades — Premium, Limited, Touring and Touring Onyx Edition — spread $38,495 to $45,495 with sensible steps, and the Onyx gives the lineup a visual appearance choice it previously lacked. But every Solterra is the same car underneath: a single battery size and one dual-motor AWD powertrain, with no long-range or single-motor option, so a buyer who wants more range or a cheaper front-drive entry simply cannot get one.

2025 was a year of two halves. Aggressive discounting drove records early — Q1 up 172.9% to 3,131 units, a best-ever January and a best-ever July at 1,562 — but the federal lease credit's expiry at the end of September took the floor out, December falling 57.3%, and the year closed at 10,715 units, down 13.9%. That is a rounding error next to the Crosstrek's 191,724 and well behind the Model Y, Mach-E and Ioniq 5.

Subaru carries genuine goodwill — top-tier owner loyalty and an outdoorsy, all-weather identity that ought to suit an AWD electric SUV perfectly, and the badge holds value on a used lot. The Solterra has never fully cashed that in: it is widely understood to be a rebadged Toyota bZ4X built by Toyota, it lacks the trail credibility buyers associate with Forester and Outback, and its name recognition is a fraction of the models it shares a showroom with.

Scored on buyer benefit, this is comfortably the Solterra's best line. On top of an MSRP already cut $6,500–$7,000, Subaru passed the $7,500 federal leasing credit straight through as lease cash, stacked regional dealer cash of roughly $3,200, and advertised Premium leases at $299 a month with $299 due at signing and no security deposit; 0% APR finance offers ran alongside. It is held below the ceiling only because these were plainly distress-level terms, and the lease-credit engine driving them vanished when the federal credit lapsed at the end of September 2025.

2025 is the third and final model year of the launch-spec Solterra, which arrived for 2023 on Toyota's e-TNGA platform, and Subaru revealed the comprehensively updated 2026 car during 2025 — larger battery, more power, materially faster DC charging and a native NACS port for Supercharger access. A 2025 buyer therefore took delivery of the outgoing car months ahead of one that fixes its two loudest complaints, and the price cut and Onyx Edition are a run-out response rather than a refresh.

Reviewers credit the standard AWD, the quiet ride and the sharply reduced price, but consistently mark it down for mediocre range, slow fast charging and unremarkable acceleration, and it has never won a class comparison test or a major award like 10Best or NACTOY. The one real trophy is safety: the Solterra took an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ for 2025 under the institute's tougher rear-passenger criteria, its third straight year of TSP recognition. Owner sentiment runs better than critic sentiment, at 3.9 out of 5 on Edmunds — ahead of the Model Y.