Subaru this week offered another glimpse of its upcoming 2023 Solterra electric vehicle (EV) ahead of next week’s official debut.
The new teaser photo shows the Solterra playing in the mud (you expected something else from Subaru?). It shows a tight focus on the front wheel, revealing the distinctive cladding of the front fender – something like the black body cladding common to many off-road-oriented SUVs.
It’s a design element shared with the 2023 Toyota bZ4x. The Solterra appears to share almost every design element with the bZ4x. Subaru has now revealed several teaser photos of the Solterra. Toyota has shown the bz4x in full.
The two brands developed the cars together like they did with the Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ sports coupe twins. As with those cars, the Solterra and the bZ4x seem to be visually almost identical.
Subaru hasn’t revealed any of the Solterra’s mechanical details other than to promise that it will come only in an all-wheel-drive (AWD) layout (again, you expected something else from Subaru?). But we expect it to track closely to what its Toyota cousin has to offer.
The bZ4x is available in both front- and all-wheel-drive. AWD bZ4x SUVs have 214 horsepower and achieved 310 miles of range in Japanese government testing. U.S. government testing frequently shows shorter range numbers.
We’ll know more at next week’s Los Angeles Auto Show when Subaru makes it all official. We’re particularly interested to know if Subaru chooses to follow Toyota into offering an optional Tesla-style steering yoke in place of a steering wheel.
