Video: 2026 Subaru Solterra Up Close: Nicely Updated, Nearly Competitive

They've done quite a lot to the new '26 Solterra. Lemme take you through it. The biggest visual change to the new Solterra is the elimination of the molded in color plastic fascias, front and rear. Those massive matte plastic bumper fender things are now painted. Body color for white, black and gray Solterras, gloss black for all other colors. There are new headlights and taillights as well. And the overall look has dramatically improved, especially in the pearlescent white version that I had a nice up close look at. The styling of the Solterra was originally somewhat questionable, but with these revisions it becomes a much more appealing, attractive car that blends in a lot better with the rest of the street. If not really the rest of the Subaru lineup, which it doesn't resemble much at all. You'll also notice the charge door has moved and now hides a Tesla style NACS connector, which is being adopted across the industry as the new standard. It also enables the new Solterra to charge at any Tesla supercharger station without an adapter for easy, fast charging convenience. Improvements continue inside as well with a new dash incorporating and improved 14-inch multimedia system in various controls. The layout is still the same with the driver looking over the steering wheel at the high set digital gauge panel, which has been an issue for some drivers who really don't care for this configuration. I don't mind it at all. I think it's an interesting compromise for an automaker that doesn't want to add the expense of a heads up display. It's high up enough on the dash that it doesn't require you to let your eyes stray too far from the road in order to see all the gauges. Shorter drivers, however, do seem to find this placement to be a problem. The new multimedia system is based on Toyota's software and it works well enough, but we do wish that this system came with a home screen. The rest of the interior has also seen some upgrades to materials and colors and it looks good. It's still plenty roomy in the second row as well and outward visibility is excellent. There's a decent amount of cargo room in the rear seats full to make it even more useful. Overall, the changes to the Solterra styling give it a more upscale, cohesive look and are a positive change for sure. Yeah, that does look better, doesn't it? The revisions to the new Solterra aren't just skin deep however. The battery is bigger now with a larger capacity of 74.7 kilowatt hours up from the old car 72.8 kilowatt hours. Meaning, range has also gone up from 222 miles to now 285 miles, which is a nice improvement. Power is up to with horsepower rising to 233 horsepower and there's a new XT trim now that produces 338 horsepower, which Subaru says is good for a zero to 60 sprint of less than five seconds. Now that would make it the quickest Subaru ever made if it can deliver in real world testing. Charging speed has also been approved with the new battery pack. DC fast charging can now happen up to 150 kilowatts instead of 100 kilowatts allowing a 10 to 80% charge in under 35 minutes according to the Subaru. Now that's still not great in terms of fast charging speeds, especially when competitors from Hyundai and Kia can achieve charging speeds over 235 kilowatts and that 10 to 80% charge usually takes about 15 minutes. But this should help improve fast charging speeds a bit if you use such things frequently. That performance improvement in range, charging, and acceleration does need to be tested. But they do help bring the Solterra more in line with competitor vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox, which has similar numbers, charging and pricing. The Solterra standard all-wheel drive is a bonus however. Something common to most Subarus and not something common in most entry level EVs. The overall changes are solid improvements to the Solterra but we do need to reserve final judgment for how successful the revisions are for when we get behind the wheel. Now we don't quite have all the final specs for the '26 Solterra. That's gonna be coming later this summer. We also don't have pricing yet. That's also gonna be coming closer to its on sale date, summer of 2025. And if you'd like to learn more about the new Solterra and all of its data and all of its specs and all of its new updated goodness, you can find all of that at cars.com.