2023 Subaru Solterra EV teased with revealing photos both inside and out

Subaru is showing us all kinds of views of its upcoming Solterra electric crossover today. Teasers for the front, rear, side and interior of the crossover are available to pore over, and you can scroll through them all in the gallery above.

We’ll start with the tiny shreds of information Subaru gave us in addition to the photos, though. Subaru confirmed that all-wheel drive will be standard with the Solterra. It also claimed “ample backseat and cargo room,” but did not provide figures or photos to back the claim up. Lastly, Subaru said to expect it to come with “advanced safety technology,” but didn’t further define what that tech consisted of.

Now, onto the photos. The completely unshrouded and undisguised photo of the rear bumper and taillights is a good place to start. We can see some sharp LED lights on either side of the hatch with a spoiler in between them. There’s a ton of badging out back with five total emblems (including the center Subaru logo). The blue “EV” logo in the lower right corner is the most intriguing new badge. Below the bumper is some black plastic cladding, presumably to give the EV’s rear some rugged vibes.

The front view gives us our first glance at the car’s LED headlights. They’re sharp and angular, matching the shape of the sheetmetal formed around them. The hood line appears to turn sharply upwards right after the headlight ends, too. We can see the smallest glimpse of the grille. A Subaru logo is visible through the forest, and flat black panels appear to be the backsplash for which the logo rests. However, the finer details here are still impossible to fully suss out.

Subaru’s last exterior teaser shows the entire side profile, including production wheels. This is where it’s given away that the Solterra is going to look nearly identical to its Toyota twin (the car is being jointly developed with Toyota), the bZ4X. The two are just about exact copies of each other from the side, as they share every body line and crease down to the lights in front and back. Even the body cladding/Toyota trim decor shapes are the same. Subaru’s one differentiator we can see here is in wheel design. The wheels on the Solterra appear more rugged than the stylish rims on the bZ4X. Nevertheless, if you’ve seen the bZ4X, you can basically say that you’ve seen the Solterra now.

Perhaps the most exciting teaser photo of all is the single interior shot Subaru dropped today. It depicts a darkened interior in order to highlight the screens and basics of the interior design, and it sure does look upmarket versus Subaru’s current interior design language. Even with the recent shift upward with the new Outback and Legacy, this one’s a cut above. A giant widescreen dominates the center stack, while touch haptic control buttons waterfall below it. This leads into a rotary shift knob flanked by even more touch controls. There’s also a strange sequence of lights just behind the shifter that we’re not entirely sure of yet. The last bit of light we can see is from the digital instrument cluster that looks pushed fairly far forward to the windshield — just look at how long that steering column appears.

Both the door panel and dash look like they’re slathered in some unknown (perhaps green/recycled?) trim materials that we’re eager to explore. It certainly doesn’t look like any Subaru interior we’ve ever seen, and once again, that’s due to how much Toyota is in it. If you look at photos of the bZ4X’s interior, the Solterra’s general design and materials mirror what Toyota is using. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s worth noting how similar these two cars will ultimately be.

As of now, the Solterra is scheduled to go on sale in mid-2022 as a 2023 model year vehicle.

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