What are people's thoughts on the Subaru's electric SUV the 2025 Solterra?

[sunsurfer]

My EV model costs less than a new Corolla and is a far nicer and much more fun car to drive and also costs a whole lot less to run/maintain. I'd expect used versions will have similar price tags.

Older Corollas are more reliable than newer ones but some people love to over spend so there is that.

 

[sunsurfer]

The base bz4X was 27k with the 16k incentive.

Don't forget price of the solar. OP wants solar to charge the EV.

 

[zanydroid]

But then I priced out insurance (increase from my 25 year old beater Civic), sales tax, and annual registration (increase also compare to same car.) I think it was going to cost me $12k additional over the next decade. Completely negating any anticipated savings on gas costs.

When I swapped my 25 year old beater Lexus (flex, I know) for an Ioniq 5, the annual insurance plus registration costs more than what I sold the Lexus for. LOL.

My spouse was really scared of the beater (for good reason) so I think of it as a safety tax

 

[wattmatters]

Don't forget price of the solar. OP wants solar to charge the EV.

True. We already had solar PV that had paid for itself years ago. Many will presumably be getting solar PV anyway.

Excess production goes to the grid for a paltry A$0.014/kWh credit (0.88 US cents/kWh).

So putting it into car instead (in US units) means it costs us 24c per 100 miles of driving.

 

[400bird]

Your first question should be why am I going to spend $75,000-$100,000 to go pick up groceries when I could just spend $5,000 on an older Toyota Corolla that can do the same thing very cheap.

I would rerun the calculator on how many years to pay for this venture on saved gas.

And a $2000 Civic would be even less. If you want to talk used cars, Leafs and 500e's are pretty cheap.

But if someone is looking at a new car anyways, an EV and ice costs are in the same ballpark. Also, I think all the EVs in discussion here are $50k and under. Luxury cars are in the range you're quoting.

Someone could also buy a 2-3 year old Ice or EV and save half off new prices. This thread is about one specific car.

 

[400bird]

Besides, it is a Toyota bZ4X by any other name. Would it smell as sweet to 400bird as Subaru?

Nope, for me the most important matter is charging speed, efficiency, and range.
Assuming like the car, price is right, etc

I do still like Subarus. I'm even happier that they helped keep the family fed for years.

 

[rhino]

I suppose all car companies are doing this? But this was sad to see it with Subaru and the pretty lackadaisical security around it: https://samcurry.net/hacking-subaru

Using the access provided by the vulnerability, an attacker who only knew the victim’s last name and ZIP code, email address, phone number, or license plate could have done the following:

• Remotely start, stop, lock, unlock, and retrieve the current location of any vehicle.
• Retrieve any vehicle’s complete location history from the past year, accurate to within 5 meters and updated each time the engine starts.
• Query and retrieve the personally identifiable information (PII) of any customer, including emergency contacts, authorized users, physical address, billing information (e.g., last 4 digits of credit card, excluding full card number), and vehicle PIN.
• Access miscellaneous user data including support call history, previous owners, odometer reading, sales history, and more.

 

[twmangrove]

I've been considering an electric vehicle for awhile now as my wife does a ton of local driving and I've also been considering a solar system for the house and an electric vehicle seems like a good match to that. What are people's thoughts on the Subaru's electric SUV the 2025 Solterra? I would LOVE Will to do a review/commentary on one!

A friend of ours has one and has since regretted the purchase. She has significant range anxiety and must plan her stops for charging. She lives about 130 miles from us and at typical freeway speeds finds her range is far less than rated and would not choose a car with so little range and such slow recharge rate. A much better compromise may be a plug-in hybrid. You can get significant electric-only range and no anxiety for long trips. Something like a RAV-4 for instance, or Camry if a sedan is more your style.

 

[sunsurfer]

And a $2000 Civic would be even less. If you want to talk used cars, Leafs and 500e's are pretty cheap.

But if someone is looking at a new car anyways, an EV and ice costs are in the same ballpark. Also, I think all the EVs in discussion here are $50k and under. Luxury cars are in the range you're quoting.

Someone could also buy a 2-3 year old Ice or EV and save half off new prices. This thread is about one specific car.

yes, yes yes......but I have a clear conscious now so ....

 

[400bird]

She has significant range anxiety and must plan her stops for charging.

This is normal part of owning an EV. You must have at least some foresight and plan your trip.
Edit: not the range anxiety, the trip planning part!

She lives about 130 miles from us and at typical freeway speeds finds her range is far less than rated and would not choose a car with so little range and such slow recharge rate.

That's rough. She can't do 130 miles in it? Is she a lead foot? Or crank the heat up to 90?

 

[time2roll]

Or some have the means to just get something new and enjoy it for what it is. If the budget is $2000 this whole discussion is mute.
Can always spend less. Live in a tent. A person can easily save themselves right into the poor house.

 

[CaliSunHarvester]

She can't do 130 miles in it? Is she a lead foot? Or crank the heat up to 90?

Anecdotal evidence

Our bz4X says fully charged the range is 284 miles, that's based on the last 500 to 1000 miles of driving (not sure), in city and slow construction plagued local freeways.

So a few days before Xmas, on a Saturday, the wife wants a spontaneous trip to Fresno to visit some people, stay overnight and return next day.

I am pretty easy going. The trip is 155 miles one way, there are plenty of chargers in Fresno, and the car can do 284 miles, right? Almost enough for round trip.

1st issue: the vehicle was at 73 or 75% SOC and indicated a 210 or similar range.
No problem, we only go 155 miles.

3 people, 2 dogs, a couple of bags fit in easily. Good.

2nd issue: driving from Santa Cruz to Fresno there was no traffic. I drive and suddenly realize my speed was 85mph. There is no conventional transmission that gets louder as you drive faster.
I noticed the "miles per kWh" display which shows the efficiency averaged since the last reset.. was shrinking. From 5.0 to 4.3 perhaps.

More important, I would drive 10 miles per odometer but my remaining range was dropping 15 miles in the same time.

The females' constant need for heat didn't help.

We were in Madera, about 30 miles from our destination and the car said 50 miles range. I decided to charge in Madera (30 minutes DC fast charging).

So yes, with a vehicle that has usually a 284 mile range, I felt it was best to charge after 125 miles - I was not confident to complete 155 miles.



There was no planning other than looking whether there are any chargers in the Central Valley.

 

[time2roll]

We were in Madera, about 30 miles from our destination and the car said 50 miles range. I decided to charge in Madera (30 minutes DC fast charging).

I would have set the cruise at 55 to 62 mph and keep going. OK and I would have used the CC from the start.

 

[CaliSunHarvester]

I would have set the cruise at 55 to 62 mph and keep going. OK and I would have used the CC from the start.

That probably would have worked, highway 99 traffic moved quite fast. I don't like to be a roadblock. This drive was a disaster . Everyone wanted to arrive ASAP.
It took us 7 hours for that trip, the younger dog threw up 6 times and we made probably a dozen of stops, detours to buy cleaning supplies etc.

That all in a 7 week old car with 2000 miles on it

Turns out people medicine against motion sickness can be given to dogs. I bought it on cleaning stop #6.

Now that i think about it, with all the stops etc, it certainly was more than 155 miles.

 

[400bird]

Yeah, planning and knowing the car is important.
The guess o meter sucks. No one believes them in a gar car, but somehow we all think they are gospel in an EV.

Our Bolt has a 250 ish mile range rating.
Pre starting 20 minutes ahead of time, it to warm up the interior and defog the windows twice a day plus only short drives means that a week of my wife driving it takes the guess o meter down to about 150 miles and actual range is less. She's probably burning more juice running the heater excessively than driving.

If I drive near the speed limit and keep the heat down low (or run the AC in the summer) I can get about the rated range (same speed as a gas car, you don't get rated highway mileage at 90), but the stupid thing fast charges so slow we plan out our trips and take the other car if the trip is more than 200 miles.
We still love the thing (it does the vast majority of our driving) and charge mostly for free at home.

An EV isn't the end all solution for every trip. But it doesn't have to be. We went from about 5-6 tanks do fuel per month to 2-4 per year, outside of vacations.
I don't miss trips to the gas station.

 

[wattmatters]

The guess o meter sucks. No one believes them in a gar car, but somehow we all think they are gospel in an EV.

I keep a track of our estimated 100% SOC range and economy.



Gradual increase from winter into summer. Deviations from the norm will be periods including longer highway trips.