In 2022, the Subaru Solterra electric SUV will go on sale. Another Subaru-Toyota joint venture, it’ll roll on the new e-Subaru global platform.
Just when you thought the market for another electric vehicle was saturated, here comes the sun and the earth, in Latin. Will there be more Latin names for new Subarus? Environmental responsibility keeps the sales and marketing machine running, doesn’t it?
I caught a glimpse of the broadcast news this morning, which stated emphatically that by 2026, EVs will be less expensive than vehicles with internal combustion engines. So who at the automakers is controlling costs, and pricing these EVs? What about all the research and development costs?
You can be certain if there’s a new e-platform, there’s going to be more e-vehicles in the pipeline. What is a little different than every other EV is Subaru’s all-wheel-drive expertise, mated to Toyota’s e-technology.
The Solterra relies on Subaru’s AWD, driving dynamics, and passivity. Yes, the leader in passive safety is among its selling points. That’s what you get when you add Solterra to the Outback, Forester, and Crosstrek SUVs.
The Solterra EV is counting on the brand’s reliability, safety technology, and all-wheel-drive engineering to gain acceptance. Murky photos are also good for piquing our interest, at least until the actual reveal takes place.
The Solterra electric SUV is the logical evolution of Subaru all-weather, all-road performance in an earth-friendly package. Or at least as environmentally responsible as an all-electric SUV can be.
[Images: Subaru]
This is going to have months-long waiting lists and sell like wildfire in the Pacific Northwest.
It needs about 250 miles of fair-weather range. A huge number of Subaru owners around here have Subarus for the purpose of driving 50-100 miles, the last few of which is often on rough Forest Service roads, to mountain trailheads for day hikes. If it has enough range to satisfy that use case without anxiety, it’s golden for Seattleites.
dal
You are pretty knowledgeable. But not just the Pacific NW. I live north of Atlanta. 1/3 of North Georgia is National Forest Service Land.
I use my Forester to go deep into these forests just like the folks in Washingotn.
Sounds like fun. Enjoy the hiking/hunting/whatever else.
Finally, a Subaru without that horrible boxer engine – so maybe I would consider getting one.
As for “Subaru AWD”, the AWD in this vehicle will bear no resemblance to anything they’ve ever built before.
The question is whether the Subaru will get the Toyota solid-state battery. Without it, this car would be a far worse choice than the Toyota version. With the inevitable production constraints, you know where Toyota’s priorities will be. That’s the danger of relying on another company for your cars. That battery requires super low humidity for the manufacturing process and last I heard they were still sorting it out.
Boxer engine is not horrible. It has low center of mass.
That’s a Subaru talking point that has no merit. I don’t see Subies setting handling records.
Now, the Solterra will have a low center of mass.
“By 2026, EVs will be less expensive than vehicles with internal combustion engines.”
So that just means that manufaturers are planning to significantly raise prices on ICE’s.
I think they’ve been raising prices in ICEs anyway. For EVs to get cheaper, the battery designers and more importantly the engineers that design the battery production lines have to deliver. Lots of great battery tech has finally left the labs and is in limited low volume production. Toyota and several other companies have solid-state or semi-solid-state batteries ready to go. Low cost technology .like Sodium-ion is in limited production and Lithium-Iron, another low cost tech, is already going into low-end Teslas produced in China. The problem (except for Li-Fe) is ramping up to volume mass production. That’s not a trivial step.
Eventually, costs are going to go way down, it’s just hard to predict when. I still think Sodium-Ion is the one to watch. Density isn’t as good as lithium, but it’s already as good as lithium batteries were a few years ago. It will never catch up with lithium-ion density, but I think it will be more than adequate in a few years (200 Wh/kg density) for use in low-end cars.
Here’s an IEEE article on sodium-ion. I really think the potential for the technology is huge and I think it’s possible to get them into cars in 2026 if they can get them at or above 200 Wh/kg density.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/batteries-storage/sodium-ion-batteries-poised-to-pick-off-large-scale-lithium-applications
One thing that I forgot to mention, is that as lithium ion improves in gravimetric density(gets lighter), vehicle efficiency will improve, so less battery will be needed for a given range further lowering costs.
“manufaturers are planning to significantly raise prices on ICE’s.”
It is already happening. Buy BEV next time.
The gaping maw where the grill should be looks very Lexus like.
That’s not a compliment.