Subaru E-Outback review

Largely excellent. Front suspension is the usual Macpherson struts with double wishbones at the back, so well known and well-tuned by Subaru. With 211mm of ground clearance, it’s not quite an SUV, but also not a splitter-shattering snowplough, and even though it’s obviously got a low centre-of-gravity - something that Subaru always used to bang on about with the ‘boxer’ engines from the internally-combusted cars - you do still feel the weight. Which, at a smidge over two tonnes isn’t actually as ginormous as some of these BEVs.

It’s not especially hampered by the mass though - this isn’t trying to be a WRX. Although it does have the power; both front and rear motors produce around 224 horsepower, but the total system output is 370 (the obvious possibility being 448-ish), so the motors are running comfortably within their operating window.

But it’s got some tricks, even if it’s not actually obvious that the car is doing anything. Mess with the re-gen braking and it actually splits the drag between the front and rear axles to keep the car level when you lift off the accelerator. There are five levels of re-gen braking, by the way, if you include the ‘no regen braking at all’ as a setting.

It’ll also sorta-kinda torque vector like much more expensive kit. The motors are set up for a 50:50 split, but the rear motor can overpower a bit and alter the balance of the car through a corner. It’s not madly obvious, but the E-Outback is confident through corners, even at relatively high speeds. And yep, there’s lean, but it’s the sort that lets you know what’s going on, rather than deforms the suspension kinematics and has you wondering which hedge you’re about to faceplant into. And all throughout, the steering is well-weighted and smooth, even if it’s not the most chatty.

And that’s before you even get into the X-Mode off-road stuff. The usual players here; Snow/Dirt Mode and Deep Snow/Mud Mode, plus Grip Control off-road cruise control where you just set a speed and let the car work everything out. It’ll go places you wouldn’t believe, as long as your belief system took into account the ride height. 

One thing to note here: it’s not like having locking diffs. Cross axle the car and the unloaded wheel needs to spin to ‘tell’ the system to lock it up, so you have to have the confidence to keep applying light throttle. Similarly, a steep off-road hillstart will have the car roll backwards slightly to ascertain what it needs to do. Which is fine once you have the confidence that you’ve pushed the right buttons, but you’ll clench hard enough to pucker the seat fabric at first.

What about the other help systems?

One to note is the pre-collision system - if you fail to react, it’ll actually emergency brake the car to a stop. We’ve seen it before, but this one actually works. And yes, it’s a nightmare to test - you’re right leg twitching towards the brake pedal something rotten. But the Safety Sense stuff is all very accomplished at this stage for Subaru. Albeit you can swipe and switch the annoying ones off.  So there’s the Pre-Collision System (incl. Emergency Steering Assist and Front Cross Traffic Alert), Lane Departure Alert, Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Tracing Assist (keeps the vehicle in a lane) and Lane Change Assist.

Then there’s Road Sign Assist, Adaptive High Beam and Proactive Driving Assist that ‘supports steering and braking to help maintain a safe distance from pedestrians, cyclists and parked vehicles’ - which sounds really annoying. There’s even an Emergency Driving Stop System that can safely bring the vehicle to a stop if the driver becomes unresponsive. Or maybe that’s just my face.