Subaru Solterra On A Tesla Charger: Here

• The 2026 Subaru Solterra has a maximum DC fast-charging rate of 150 kW, allowing it to charge from 0% to 80% in approximately 30 minutes.
• It now comes with a native Tesla-style NACS plug, too. 
• I tested Subaru’s charging claim at a Tesla Supercharger station, and it delivered. 

When Toyota originally set out to make a modern electric vehicle, it didn’t exactly stick the landing—especially where DC fast-charging is concerned.

The first-generation Toyota bZ4X and its re-badged cousin, the Subaru Solterra, were kind of infamous for their lackluster charging speeds and times. The old all-wheel-drive versions of those cars maxed out at just 100 kilowatts, a good 50 kW below the modern baseline. When our own Tim Levin attempted a bZ4X road trip, he found himself stuck on the plug for hours at a time.  

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

But that was then. The bZ4X (now re-christened the bZ) and Solterra received major upgrades for the 2026 model year. Those changes include increased driving range, larger batteries, 150 kW charging speeds across the board, a heat pump, battery preconditioning and, supposedly, better route-planning. All of those changes should fix their road-trip roadblocks. 

The Toyobaru EVs also get a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug and have native Tesla Supercharger access for 2026. That’s a plus for your next road trip: more than 20,000 additional chargers these EVs couldn’t use before.

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

Subaru says the Solterra can now charge from 10% to 80% in about 28 minutes on a 150-kW plug. If true, that’s better than the previous model year’s 35 minutes, and massively improved from the original Solterra, which needed an hour to fast-charge. 

I recently spent some time testing a 2026 Subaru Solterra to see if the real-world charging speed improved. Here’s how it did on a Tesla Supercharger.

2026 Subaru Solterra: The Tesla Supercharger Test

As with other charging tests I’ve done in the past, this isn’t a tightly controlled experiment with tons of graphs and data aimed at deep-in-the-game EV nerds. It’s a real-world test that simulates what any normal family might experience on the road.

It’s a simple test with three parameters: if your battery is low, how long does it take to get to 80%? If you don’t go to 80%, do you still get back on the road reasonably quickly? And does the car do what it claims to do?

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

The Solterra in question was a Touring XT model with a 74.7-kilowatt-hour battery and an EPA-estimated 278 miles of range. Before the temperatures dropped hard here in upstate New York, I was estimating even better results than that—the Solterra seemed to be a 300-mile EV, or close to it. 

So after a trip down to New York City, I needed some juice on my way home. While the Solterra still struggles with route-planning—it needs a smartphone app to do this, and I could never figure out how to set an actual destination with it and send it to the car—it does have a manual battery preconditioning setting. I turned that on about 20 minutes from the Tesla chargers at the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets to let the battery warm up. 

I should note one potential downside: the Solterra’s port can be a bit awkward for Tesla charging sometimes, because those cords aren’t very long and are designed for cars to back in. Be mindful of this if a lot of folks are waiting in line to charge. 

Not pictured: a Tesla to my right that I would’ve stolen a plug from.

Photo by: Patrick George

I rolled up to the Tesla charger at just 16% charge with 31 miles of range, fired up my Tesla app, initiated the charge, and plugged in at 5:16 p.m. I was quoted by the Tesla app—which had slightly different time and speed estimates from the Subaru itself—to hit 80% in 25 minutes.

Right away, the Solterra jumped to 98 kW, then held steady at 121 kW on the Tesla app or 115 kW on the Subaru for much of the test (there are losses between the dispenser and the car, which usually explains this discrepency). I was over 50% charge 12 minutes into the test, then 61% 18 minutes in, as speeds finally dropped to 104 kW. 

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

By 24 minutes into the test, speeds dropped to 91 kW as I hit a 72% state of charge. By this point, I had ducked out to find a restroom in the outlet mall, not realizing that I still had the car’s charging limit set to 100%. (Generally, unless you simply have no other options, it is best to only charge to 80% on public fast-chargers.) So when I returned, the car was at 85% charge in 31 minutes, which cost me $31.37. It was also still going steady at 71 kW. 

Thus, I can confidently say the Solterra went from 16% to 80% in about 25 minutes. Overall, not too bad—especially since it was a chilly 34 degrees Fahrenheit outside. This left me with about 190 miles of range total, also lower than expected due to the cold weather. But more than enough to get home. 

Subaru Solterra Tesla Charging Test Results, Explained

So why is my takeaway “not too bad”? Let’s explain the context here.

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

First of all, I never saw the Solterra’s maximum 150 kW speeds, which, in theory, I should have seen on a 250 kW Tesla V3 charger such as this one. Maybe the cold weather had something to do with that. The results were similar to what we’ve seen with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and other cars on Hyundai’s 800-volt electric platform: a steady 126 kW on the Tesla chargers the whole time, except the Solterra’s speeds dropped off at the end, unlike the Hyundai. 

Also, the Solterra has a 400-volt architecture, just like a Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. The result was pretty similar to what I’ve experienced in those Teslas: a low charge to 80% in about 25 to 30 minutes. The Solterra wasn’t as blinding-quick as my Kia EV6 on a 350-kW plug, but then again, it’s not supposed to be, and I didn’t expect that. 

Ultimately, the Solterra passed my stated test. It worked on the Tesla charger right away. It got me back on the road quickly enough, and if I didn’t need the full 80% charge, I could’ve driven away even sooner. It juiced up plenty in the time it took me to plug in, monitor some results, and hit the restroom. If you were doing your outlet-mall holiday shopping, the car would be ready to go well before you were even done standing in line at the Gap Factory. 

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

And it beats the heck out of poor Tim Levin’s experience a few years ago with a bZ4X, where he once spent an hour and 15 minutes to do the same thing. I’d call that progress.

I’ll address my overall impressions of the new Solterra, and my headaches around route-planning, in a separate article. But given that the car now charges more quickly than ever and has easy access to all these Tesla chargers, I’d say it’s a welcome improvement all around. 

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

More Subaru EV News