Subaru's third electric model for Australia is the Uncharted, and CarSauce's review lands on a car that is very good at almost everything except using its battery carefully. It starts at A$59,900 before on road costs, comes only in all wheel drive and a single trim, and the video times it at 5.02 seconds to 100 km/h against Subaru's claim of five seconds flat. The video gives the battery as 74.7 kilowatt hours and the WLTP figure as 522 kilometres. On the review's evidence the real number falls a long way short of that, and the reason is efficiency rather than pack size.
At that money the Uncharted undercuts very little, which is the point CarSauce makes early. The video puts it about A$2,000 above a base rear wheel drive Zeekr 7X and A$1,000 above a rear wheel drive Tesla Model Y, with all wheel drive as the answer to both. It is also a Toyota underneath, sharing its platform with the C-HR+ that the video says arrives in Australia later and in front wheel drive only. The trade is charging speed. CarSauce gives 150 kilowatts as the DC peak, modest for a 74.7 kilowatt hour NMC pack, though AC charging at 22 kilowatts is unusually quick and vehicle to load is included. For a car most owners will charge at home, that AC figure may matter more day to day than the DC one, and it is the sort of spec that rarely makes a headline.
The efficiency finding is the review's headline. CarSauce reports being unable to better 20.3 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres despite trying, in 9 degree Celsius weather, which he works out to roughly 370 kilometres from a full charge and under 300 if an owner follows the usual advice of charging an NMC battery to 80 percent daily. The presenter says that is worse than the Solterra and worse again than the Trail Seeker, which he puts at around 15 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres. Almost everything else draws praise. He rates the ride and body control among the best in the class, calls the front seats comfortable and the Toyota derived infotainment good, and quotes ground clearance at 211 millimetres. Rear space is tight for a 5 foot 11 adult, the boot is 403 litres, and there is no frunk.
Equipment is where the single trim strategy pays off. The video lists wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on a Toyota sourced infotainment system the presenter rates highly, a 360 degree camera, heated front and outboard rear seats, a heated steering wheel, dual wireless chargers, a Harman Kardon audio system he calls excellent, and a 220 volt 1,500 watt outlet in the boot. Cooled seats are the one omission he misses. The panoramic roof is a A$1,200 option and does not open. Two X-Mode settings are offered, one for snow and dirt and one for deep snow and mud, along with a camera view that shows where the front wheels are pointing, but the presenter reports getting the car stuck in mud anyway and concludes these systems are not a substitute for the mechanical all wheel drive in Subaru's combustion models. There is no rear wiper, with a camera rear view mirror provided instead.
Bottom line: this is the most frustrating kind of good car. Subaru's chassis engineers have done something genuinely special, and then the drivetrain hands back a chunk of the battery you paid for. Twenty kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres is heavy for a car this size, and the gap to the Solterra is the part that should bother Subaru, because it is the same company solving the same problem twice. If you charge at home and drive locally, the Uncharted earns the money on back roads alone. If you road trip regularly, buy the Solterra and give up half a second to 100.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.