Subaru Uncharted First Drive Is Good, the WLTP Claim Is Not

Subaru Uncharted is another Toyobaru production, and apart from an XDrive button, the interior looks like a cross between a Toyota and a Lexus.

It very much reflects the trend of Trailseeker and Solterra, which are also Toyobaru collabs. After the machete was taken to the latter, prices for Subaru Uncharted and its siblings are close.

The look is a smart little runabout in the coupé groove, a sister car to Toyota’s upcoming C-HR+, and we ran the pricing detail when it opened for pre-order.

Very Black, Very Busy Inside

Subaru Uncharted’s interior is comfortable but quite busy, and very black. Materials look and feel quality, but there is quite a lot of frenzied detailing going on. The big screen is used in other Toyota and Lexus models and cost millions to develop. Its ease of use includes few hard buttons, and dials that do double duty.

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The all-new Subaru Uncharted SEV — a genuine driver\’s car, not an apology on wheels

Front three-quarter view of the Subaru Uncharted at sunset.

That fastback roofline isn\’t just for looks — it\’s aerodynamic intent

Bold rear lighting and wide stance — the XV grew up and hit the gym

211mm of ground clearance and Symmetrical AWD — still a proper Subaru

The Subaru Uncharted driving through dust on loose terrain.

Driver-focused cabin with 14-inch touchscreen and physical controls where they matter

The Subaru Uncharted cabin showing the dashboard and central touchscreen.

ABOVE: Uncharted

It only takes a jiff to master, including my usual “four radio station favourites” test. Subaru’s Starlink had already started to feel very dated and the Toyota system is vastly superior. The biggest selling point on this tasty 14” screen might well be the lack of the dread Android Open Source Project software currently blighting the entire motor industry.

Toyota and Lexus deliberately rejected the unsatisfactory Android for their core architecture. Instead, they built this entire shared 14-inch multimedia platform on Automotive Grade Linux, with Woven by Toyota’s Arene software platform on top. Toyota walked away from BlackBerry QNX with the 2018 Camry, and BlackBerry’s COO wrote a blog post insisting QNX still owned the safety-critical modules. Android Open Source Project software is the very issue we found at fault for every single gripe in the last 2 years. Toyobaru avoids this flirt with misery.

So, although it may feel slightly foreign initially, it is bug-free unlike any of those horrendous Android-based disasters.

On the e-move

The drive is fairly relaxed. The ADAS, including smart cruise and lane keep, work quite well and have some semblance of driver control built in.

One word of warning, the reverse seems stupidly over-powered. Use an extremely genteel paw or you’ll find yourself down a stairwell faster than you can say “grey nomad”.

Suspension irons out bumps, but like the sister Subaru EVs, feels very heavy. Steering leaves no doubt that tuning was aimed at giving the impression of an active, sporty, outdoorsy type.

Range is meant to be 522km, but at 100% we saw 430km on the dial. Imagine buying a tray of 5 martinis and only getting 4. You’d be rightly miffed and that mixologist would get a stiff talking to. WLTP should be kicked to the kerb.

Where Subaru Uncharted Runs Out of Road

Subaru Uncharted is really very good, but Japanese brands haven’t got the memo, and they are not alone. First, would you buy a Toyobaru over a Tesla? Would you really buy a very good Uncharted over something for $10K less, that has far more power, much faster charging, and much more gear? Take Zeekr X for example.

But the real issue is that legacy brands are unable to match newcomers, including Tesla. Remember, Model Y made history by being the world’s top-selling car. Tesla Model Y took that glittering tiara in 2023, delivering 1.22 million cars worldwide, to officially dethrone long-term big knobs like Toyota Corolla. This also marked the first time in automotive history that a pure electric vehicle became the world’s top-selling car.

The EU is in the same boat, and the EU and USA are trying to tariff their way out of disaster, but alas. The UK has little or no industry left to protect, and Australia’s automakers were killed off by the LNP government a decade ago. Australia and the UK have not taken the punitive route.

What Happens When the Doors Are Open

Australia and the UK are the control group. Right-hand-drive, and no punitive tariff to blunt what open doors do to a price list. Start at the floor. BYD Atto 1 opens at $23,990 plus on-road costs, or $25,200 to $26,500 drive-away depending on the state, and the better-equipped Premium asks $27,990. That’s small-hatch money for an electric car, and it reset the bottom of the market for everybody.

The sales sheets say the rest. China supplied 33,634 of the cars sold here in July against Japan on 26,292, and 32.2% of the year to date against Japan on 23%, which we went through in our July VFACTS piece. Britain finished in the same place, Chinese brands taking 15% of new car registrations in the first half of 2026, up from about 10% a year earlier.

The Squeeze in the Middle

Mid-size family SUVs pay the mortgage at every legacy carmaker, which is why Solterra opens at $61,990 and Toyota bZ4X at $55,990. Leapmotor C10 starts at $49,888 and BYD Sealion 7 at $54,990, both of them a size up from Subaru Uncharted. The gap isn’t marketing. Chinese manufacturers own most of the world’s battery cell production and buy their own cells at cost, so the saving is baked in before the car is drawn. No options list at a European or Japanese brand closes that.

Europe built a wall and found out what walls do. Extra duties of up to 35.3% went on Chinese EVs in late 2024, so the cars came in as plug-in hybrids instead, paying the standard 10% and nothing more. By June this year, Chinese-built plug-in hybrids took 34% of all PHEV deliveries across the EU, the UK and EFTA, and Chinese brands hit a record 9.8% of the whole European market in April. Brussels is now drawing up duties on plug-in hybrids as well.

The bill is already showing in Germany. Group deliveries at Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi fell between 6% and 7.2% in the first half of 2026, and in China, where the money used to be, second-quarter sales at Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche fell between 30% and 41%. Britain, doors open and not much left to protect, built 385,979 cars and vans in the same half, down 7.5%.

None of this is Subaru Uncharted’s fault. It’s a good car at $59,990 that showed 430km on a full charge instead of 522km, in a market where China sold 33,634 cars here in a single month.

Sources: VFACTS monthly reporting, SMMT UK vehicle production data, European Commission trade measures, and manufacturer pricing from Subaru, Toyota, BYD and Leapmotor.

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More Subaru Stories

• Subaru Trailseeker Is the First EV Entered in a Variety Bash
• Subaru Uncharted Is a Toyota C-HR+ With a $59,990 Badge
• Subaru Forester Hybrid Continues Australia’s Petrol Era Fade

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Written by Alan Zurvas

Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.