2026 Subaru Solterra Review: Necessary Improvements
Is the 2026 Subaru Solterra a Good Electric SUV?
- The redesigned Solterra is certainly much more competitive, with more power (including a new XT variant with 338 horsepower), significantly more range, improved charging capabilities and a new Tesla-style North American Charging Standard. Pretty much everything that could be improved was.
How Does the 2026 Subaru Solterra Compare With Other Electric SUVs?
- While its significant upgrades make the new Solterra much better than the first-generation model, they don’t do anything to raise the ceiling of the segment. Rather, they raise the floor. A Ford Mustang Mach-E is a bit sportier with longer available range, the Volkswagen ID.4 is more comfortable on-road, and the well-rounded Hyundai Ioniq 5 remains a leader in the class. But seeing a Solterra on the road will no longer elicit surprise — at least if it’s the new one.
2026 Subaru Solterra | Cars.com photo by Leslie Cunningham
Subaru announced the redesigned 2026 Solterra this year, and it impressed us when we first saw it in person. The second-generation Solterra, like the first, is the result of a joint venture between Subaru and Toyota, and it shares much of its improvements with its 2026 Toyota bZ cousin. Those include battery, efficiency, charging and interior tech updates that make the Solterra much more than just a vehicle that lets Subaru tick the “sells an electric vehicle” box. And the Solterra, unlike the bZ, comes exclusively with dual-motor all-wheel drive.
Related: Updated 2026 Subaru Solterra EV Boasts More Than 285 Miles of Range
To find out as much as I could about the 2026 Solterra’s improvements — and to give it something of a quick and dirty efficiency test — I headed to Denver to drive the new Solterra on twisty mountain roads both paved and unpaved, on highways and even on a light off-road course (per Cars.com’s ethics policy, we pay for all travel and lodging when attending such manufacturer-sponsored events).
Read on to learn how the Solterra performed.
What Are the 2026 Solterra’s Power, Range and Charging Stats?
Stats matter for EVs, though it’s never a guarantee that an EV will always deliver on its promises. But when the previous Solterra had less than 230 miles of EPA-estimated range in every configuration, a maximum power output of 215 horsepower and a maximum DC fast-charging rate of 100 kilowatts, it never even offered on-paper competitiveness. Compare those numbers to these:
2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium AWD Extended Range
- 370 hp
- 300 miles of range
- 150-kW max DC fast-charging rate
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL AWD
- 320 hp
- 290 miles of range
- 235-kW max DC fast-charging rate
2025 Volkswagen ID.4 AWD Pro S
- 335 hp
- 263 miles of range
- 175-kW max DC fast-charging rate
Compared with its predecessor, the 2026 Solterra improves on every single one of these stats, with an estimated 288 (Premium) or 278 (Limited, Limited XT and Touring XT) miles of range, 233 or 338 (XT) hp, and a 150-kW DC fast-charging rate. Not one of those specs blows away the Ford, Hyundai or Volkswagen (if they exceed them at all), but at least they’re all competitive now.
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When I started driving, the Solterra Touring XT’s battery was at 100%, and it was showing 280 miles of range — slightly more than its estimated 278 miles. After 121.3 miles of extremely mixed-use driving (including heavy climate-control use, various driving modes and even an off-road course), I’d used 42% of the battery’s charge. The range estimate was now 149 miles, meaning I’d used 131 miles of range — fairly accurate, but not perfect.
I did not, however, get to test the new Solterra’s charging capabilities during my time with it. We’ll have to wait until we have one at our home offices in Chicago for a more thorough evaluation.
How Does the 2026 Subaru Solterra Drive?
1 / 212026 Subaru Solterra, rear badge | Cars.com photo by Leslie Cunningham
The Solterra’s driving experience is fairly pedestrian for an EV. I drove a Touring XT, which Subaru says can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds. That makes it the quickest model in the automaker’s lineup, but it’s not all that quick in the world of EVs. While there’s far more power than in the last Solterra, flooring the accelerator pedal hardly pushes you into your seat. The added power is more noticeable on the highway, where there is now enough reserve power for worry-free passing and merging.
Ride comfort is adequate, even with my test vehicle’s 20-inch wheels and tires (18s are standard on the Premium). Washboard gravel roads made the Solterra shudder, but it never felt out of control. The standard dual-motor AWD system — retuned for 2026 for better power distribution and control — and the car’s driver-assist features made getting sideways even on dirt hairpins difficult.
Braking feel is solid and linear enough, and while there are five regenerative-braking settings (four if you don’t count “none” as a setting), there is no true one-pedal driving mode. Fortunately, Subaru has tuned the regen admirably, and it’s easy to seamlessly transition from the strongest setting to braking to a full stop with the brake pedal without stopping short and throwing everyone and everything in the car forward. Annoyingly, Subaru has not figured out that drivers might like to keep their regen-braking setting from drive to drive; when the Solterra is turned on again after stopping, it reverts to the weakest “on” setting.
About the make
Subaru
Standard all-wheel drive made Subaru popular with drivers in cold climates and outdoorsy types alike. The company is also known for its boxer engines.
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How Does the 2026 Subaru Solterra Drive Off-Road?
Subaru is quick to point out the 2026 Solterra has 8.3 inches of ground clearance, and with its standard AWD and dual-mode X-Mode terrain settings, it’s more than capable of tackling the average owner’s off-roading needs — and then some. The course we drove was narrow but not especially challenging, based on my experience, and the Solterra had no issues with the uneven, undulating and loose terrain. The Solterra is not a dedicated off-road rig, but it is a Subaru.
More Subaru Solterra News From Cars.com:
- 2026 Subaru Solterra Up Close: Meaningfully Updated, Nearly Competitive
- Is the 2025 Subaru Solterra a Good EV? 5 Pros, 3 Cons
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How Good Is the 2026 Subaru Solterra’s Interior?
1 / 482026 Subaru Solterra, cargo outlet | Cars.com photo by Leslie Cunningham
Inside the Solterra, improvements include a new 14-inch touchscreen — Subaru’s biggest ever and vastly superior to the portrait-oriented displays found in many other current Subaru models. If it’s different from Toyota’s 14-inch infotainment display in any meaningful way, I couldn’t tell. It’s responsive and intuitive enough, and the graphics are crisp.
A new, wider center console now houses two wireless device chargers. It’s a nice design, but over the course of my driving, I found it irritated my right knee. I’m 6-foot-1, and taller drivers may find this even more annoying. Backseat room was good for someone of my height even behind my preferred driving position. Cargo space should be more than adequate for smaller families or folks with pets, but I’m looking forward to measuring the cargo area ourselves to see how it compares with other SUVs.
Should You Buy the 2026 Subaru Solterra?
With a competitive feature set and spec sheet — and assuming competitive pricing (it wasn’t available as of publication) — the 2026 Subaru Solterra is definitely worth your consideration if you’re shopping for an electric compact SUV. If it can deliver on its improved charging and range in the real world — and currently we have no reason to believe it won’t — it’s better than its predecessor in every conceivable way. While it’s not necessarily vastly better than any of its chief competitors, there’s a chance it could be a relative bargain.
Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
Road Test Editor
Road Test Editor Brian Normile joined the automotive industry and Cars.com in 2013, and he became part of the Editorial staff in 2014. Brian spent his childhood devouring every car magazine he got his hands on — not literally, eventually — and now reviews and tests vehicles to help consumers make informed choices. Someday, Brian hopes to learn what to do with his hands when he’s reviewing a car on camera. He would daily-drive an Alfa Romeo 4C if he could.
2026 Nissan Leaf Review: Value Victory
By Conner Golden
September 12, 2025
2026 Nissan Leaf, front | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden
How Much Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf Cost?
- When it goes on sale later in the fall, the Nissan Leaf S+ trim level will start at $31,485 (including destination), making it the most affordable electric vehicle on the American market, beating out the Hyundai Kona Electric and Chevrolet Equinox EV.
How Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf Compare With Other Electric SUVs?
- Against the Equinox EV and Kona, the 2026 Leaf falls between them in charging, range and performance but beats both on price. It’s also one of the smaller electric SUVs available, with a footprint that’s closer to subcompact than compact.
It’s 2025 — electric vehicles are no longer novel. Folks don’t buy EVs just because they’re electric, and they especially won’t slide in the seat if there’s still a whiff of the dorky EV of yesteryear that carried a trunk brimming with cultural baggage. The Nissan Leaf? Oh, that’s one of the original EVs, right down to its dowdy hatch appearance and interior that managed to be boring, funky and outdated all at the same time.
Mind you, I’m talking the first- and second-generation Leaf, the latter replaced for the 2026 model year with the third gen of Nissan’s electric bread and butter. I’d never accuse the latest Leaf of being granola, as its scaled-up, sleekened exterior and genuine stylistic flair indicates it ain’t your weird aunt’s EV anymore.
Related: 2026 Nissan Leaf Goes Crossover, Finally Gets the Range It Deserves
Even before you set butt to seat, you can tell Nissan spent considerable effort to distance the redesigned 2026 Leaf from both its immediate ancestors and the workaday Nissan lineup as a whole. The minimalist interior offers a mature, measured translation of the familiar funky-futuristic design language found on so many EVs, surprisingly taking more inspiration from the current Nissan Murano than the Ariya, Nissan’s other electric SUV.
It’s a sharp-looking space to match the Leaf’s fastback exterior, which is a clear attempt to capture the enduring popularity of the SUV-style “coupe.” Emphasis there is on “SUV,” as the Leaf sheds its familiar compact-hatch skin for that of a (slightly) lifted, cladded crossover, an identity shift that slots right in with what’s popular among U.S. consumers.
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How Big Is the 2026 Nissan Leaf?
It’s a crossover, but quite a compact one. At Nissan’s first-drive event for automotive media, my Leaf test vehicle was loaded with three people, with Cars.com’s 6-foot-tall videographer sitting behind my 5-foot-11-inch frame as I rode shotgun to my drive partner. (Cars.com pays for its own travel and lodging when attending such manufacturer-sponsored events.) This arrangement required that I scoot the front passenger seat relatively far forward so as to not crush my colleague’s legs. The happy medium found my legs moderately bent against the slanted passenger footwell, with my knee resting against the hard edge of the protruding panel on the dash for the push-button gear selector.
Comparing manufacturer-listed interior dimensions between the new and previous Leaf tells the full story. For the new car, front legroom remains nearly unchanged, with an extra 0.3 inch, but it cuts a substantial 1.7 inches from rear legroom that, in turn, leeches space from the front as passengers compensate. Checking over exterior dimensions reveals more shrinkage, with the 2026 Leaf actually cutting 0.4 inch from the wheelbase and 3 inches from the overall length. Nissan-measured cargo space of 20 cubic feet behind the backseat is slightly less than it was before, but maximum cargo capacity with the backseat folded blooms by 25.5 cubic feet to 55.5.
2026 Nissan Leaf, rear angle red | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden
It gets stranger the more you compare. The new Leaf is wider than the old hatch but is both shorter in height and ground clearance. That’s no typo: If you plan on tackling the Rubicon, perhaps spring for a last-gen Leaf and its additional 0.6 inch of ground clearance over the new model’s 5.3 inches. (Editor’s note: Don’t take any Leaf on the Rubicon Trail.)
What Is the 2026 Nissan Leaf’s Interior Like?
Materials are the biggest conversation piece here; frosted plastic dash trim and controls give way to a neat textile panel that runs the perimeter of the cabin, lending a flat, matte appearance to the interior that’s a welcome change from gloss-black and faux carbon-fiber surfaces. Top-of-the-line Platinum+ grade features include heated seats and steering wheel, a 10-speaker Bose sound system, a wireless device charger, a head-up display, rain-sensing wipers and a hands-free power liftgate.
Dual 14.3-inch driver and infotainment displays arrive at the second-from-the-top SV+ trim, and they’re both responsive and high-fidelity — ditto for the current iteration of the NissanConnect infotainment system. It’s worth mentioning that some of the Leaf’s most practical goodies are reserved for the higher trims, including Google Built-In infotainment tech with route planning, a heat pump and a vehicle-to-load outlet in the cargo area.
About the make
Nissan
Nissan is one-third of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and produces a full selection of cars and SUVs as well as the mid-size Frontier pickup.
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2026 Nissan Leaf, front-row wide | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden
How Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf Drive?
You’d think that this ground-huggin’ stance and new rakish profile indicates the new Leaf is some manner of electro hot hatch, but you’d be dead wrong. Out on some moderately snaked California mountain roads, the 2026 Leaf was remarkably uncomposed, with a weird amount of squirminess and continued rebound from the suspension over bumps. Slow steering and an incongruously firm ride combined with those body motions for a noxious carsickness concoction that had all three of us separately remarking at just how jostling the ride can be over pavement that really didn’t seem that broken or undulating.
It can’t corner or coddle worth a darn, but you can ignore everything — everything — mentioned above if you restrict the third-gen Leaf to urban surface streets or arrow-straight highways. Through the short portions of downtown San Diego and its network of wide interstates, the Leaf was utterly and entirely acceptable from a ride quality perspective, only returning a bit of squiggle through slow road dips and over speed bumps.
Stay away from the countryside, I guess. On the other end of the spectrum, the Leaf’s brake blend — or the balance between purely regenerative resistance and the physical brakes — is well tuned. All four levels of regen braking were both usable and effective, and while Nissan’s max e-Step regen mode isn’t quite one-pedal driving, it wicks away a significant amount of speed before tapering and eventually disengaging around 5-6 mph.
2026 Nissan Leaf, wheel red | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden
How Much Power Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf Have?
Power and performance from the single front-mounted electric motor is more impressive than its 214 horsepower and 261 pounds-feet of torque might indicate. Even with three dudes and a load of camera gear, the electric drivetrain’s insta-torque was more than enough for safe passing and highway merging. My test vehicle was a top-of-the-line Platinum+ grade, which comes with the more powerful motor and larger battery that most trims have; stick with the basest-of-base S grade, and power drops to 174 hp and 254 pounds-feet.
More Nissan Leaf News From Cars.com:
- All-New 2026 Nissan Leaf Remains Cheapest EV Available, Starts at $31,485
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How Fast Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf Charge?
There are dual charge ports — a J1772-style port that supports Level 2 charging and a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard port that supports DC fast-charging at up to 150 kilowatts. Under ideal conditions, road trippers can expect to juice the Leaf from 10% to 80% in 35 minutes, according to Nissan, but make sure you pick the right trim for your needs, as range varies greatly. For now, Nissan only has range estimates for the bigger 75-kilowatt-hour battery that goes in every trim save the base S, with the S+ offering 303 miles of range, 288 miles for the SV+ and the heaviest Platinum+ having a still-solid 259 miles.
1 / 25| Cars.com photo by Conner Golden
But here’s the best part: As of this writing, the 2026 Leaf is still the most affordable EV available on the U.S market. As previously mentioned, the S+ lands at $31,485 (including destination), undercutting both the Hyundai Kona Electric and Chevrolet Equinox EV as the bargain champion, with the as-of-yet-unrevealed Leaf S presumably coming in around the $29,000 or $30,000 mark. The new Leaf is a no-brainer at its low-to-middle pricing, but the value proposition becomes foggy as you reach the $40,000 mark with a top trim.
It ain’t perfect, but this third-generation Leaf slingshots Nissan’s O.G. EV into the modern electric era while still retaining the affordability that made the nameplate so well liked in the first place. Look for your local Nissan dealer to stock them sometime later in the fall, but just make sure you absolutely, positively don’t have a curvy road on your morning commute.
Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
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2026 Nissan Leaf Review: Value Victory
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