Subaru’s electric Solterra SUV due here next year has received a five-star European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) safety rating.
The Euro NCAP evaluated the Solterra in Adult Occupant Protection (88%), Child Occupant Protection (87%), Vulnerable Road Users Protection (79%) and Safety Assist (91%).
Notably for families, the Solterra achieved the most remarkable score in the Child Occupant Protection, with the maximum score in Crash Test Performance of both frontal and lateral impact based on six and 10-year-old children.
Welcoming the five-star rating, Subaru of New Zealand’s managing director Wallis Dumper says he is not surprised by it.
“Our all-new electric SUV, the Solterra follows in the tyre prints of the Subaru Outback which was awarded the maximum five-star safety rating from independent Australasian vehicle safety authority ANCAP, achieving record scores in 2021. Outback has been awarded five stars since 2004 and in fact, our entire Subaru model line has had a five-star ANCAP safety rating for many years,” Dumper explains.
“Subaru specialises in core technologies that help our vehicles achieve both the Euro NCAP and ANCAP results, and these are underpinned by the engineering prowess of our Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive (AWD).
“Like all our New Zealand-new Subarus, the Solterra is All-Wheel Drive, which gives Kiwi drivers the chance to join our journey towards a more sustainable future while retaining the greater balance and extreme control that is part and parcel of AWD.”
With Subaru of New Zealand confirming the Solterra’s 2023 arrival in New Zealand, Dumper says it’s working hard to establish when the two Solterra models will be on sale through its 17 outlets.
Solterra adopted the e-Subaru Global Platform, a jointly developed battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform with Toyota Motor Corporation.
In the event of a collision, the multi load path structure efficiently absorbs the collision energy and protects the vehicle occupants, Subaru says.
Solterra also received an extremely high score for AEB Car-to-Car in Safety Assist assessment (5.8/6 pts) thanks to the preventive ‘Subaru Safety Sense’ system.
Additionally, Solterra achieved an impressive score for AEB Cyclist (8.7/9 pts for the Vulnerable Road Users assessment area. The system performed well in the tests of its response to pedestrians and cyclists, with collisions avoided in most test scenarios, as well as collisions involving other vehicles.
Subaru will continue to enhance safety through its primary, driving, passive, preventive, and newly added connected safety technologies under its ‘all-around safety’ principle.
Through these efforts, Subaru Corporation aims to achieve zero fatal road accidents by 2030.
“We recently displayed an overseas model Subaru Solterra at the New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty Queenstown Marathon and it generated huge interest there,” says Dumper. “Potential customers and those Subaru loyalists that are keen to move to an e-SUV and have pre-ordered a Solterra, all commented on its generous size, which is somewhere between an Outback and a Forester.”
Dumper says Solterra’s cruising range per charge of about 460km was also a popular talking point.
More details will be available in the lead-up to the Subaru Solterra launch in New Zealand.
Click here to register interest.
