Subaru Uncharted Is a Toyota C-HR+ With a $59,990 Badge

The Subaru Uncharted is on sale from $59,990 before on-road costs, and underneath the badge it is a Toyota C-HR+. That makes it the third electric Subaru in a row that Subaru did not engineer.

The Subaru Uncharted uses the same Toyota’s e-TNGA platform as Solterra and the Trailseeker, which are the Toyota bZ4X and the bZ4X Touring with different noses. We have already been through this twice, most recently when we lined up the Trailseeker against the bZ4X Touring. Three electric Subarus, three Toyotas. The engineering partnership Japan needed to get EVs to market in the wake of stiff competition from China.

Late to a Party That Started Without It

Subaru’s electric run began with the Solterra, a car that landed in a market withmuch less competition and still struggled, to the point that Subaru eventually cut the price of both it and the Trailseeker. In the years it took to get from there to here, the small electric SUV class went from a handful of cars to a veritable avalanche. The Subaru Uncharted is joining a queue, four years after the queue formed.

Subaru is still selling all-wheel drive and capability to buyers who now have twenty other electric options, most of them cheaper, several of them newer, and a good number of them with more range.

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

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

The Subaru Uncharted shown side-on in an off-road setting.

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

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

Close-up detail of the Subaru Uncharted rear badge.

ABOVE: The Uncharted

The Rugged Talk and the 20-Inch Wheels

Subaru Uncharted ahs 211mm of ground clearance, Dual-Mode X-Mode with Grip Control, a Multi-Terrain Monitor and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, and some tasty launch photography suggesting being at home in dust on a gravel climb. He profile is a fastback roofline that drops hard toward the tail, 20-inch alloy wheels pushed to the corners, and the low-profile road tyres that go with them. There is no low range, no locking diff and no underbody protection in the design, suggesting a softly-softly approach to weekends.

It makes it a road car with good traction, which is handy on a wet roundabout or a dirt driveway and an entirely different proposition from an off-roader. Toyota sells the same vehicle as a C-HR+ and does not once suggest you take it bush. The 211mm makes this a small electric crossover that will handle a fire trail on the way to a campsite and should not be asked to do more.

What the Subaru Uncharted Gives You for $59,990

There is one model, Uncharted AWD, with a panoramic roof and a roof-plus-two-tone-paint pack as the only options. Two motors make a combined 252kW for a 0-100 of 5 seconds run to 100km/h. This comfortably the quickest Subaru electric car so far. The battery is a 74.7kWh CATL pack good for 522km on the WLTP cycle, DC charging peaks at a decent 150kW and takes it from 10 to 80% in about half an hour, and regenerative braking runs through five levels on the paddles.

The cabin has a 14-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 7-inch driver display, a digital rear-view mirror, ten Harman Kardon speakers with a subwoofer, two wireless phone pads and four USB-C ports. Heated front and rear seats, a heated wheel and driver seat memory come as standard. So does a very modest 1.5kW Vehicle-to-Load outlet, which will run a very small campsite or a set of power tools off the battery. Safety includes 8 airbags and the full Subaru Safety Sense suite, including a system that will bring the car to a stop if it decides the driver nods off at the wheel.

Where the Chinese Have Already Been

This is the part Subaru cannot answer with a feature list. At $59,990 the Uncharted is priced above almost everything a buyer would cross-shop it against, and the gap to the Chinese cars is not small. A BYD Atto 3 is around $44,500. A GWM ORA is $35,990. An MG ZS EV is $34,990. That is a $25,000 spread between the cheapest car on this list and the Subaru, and the cheap ones are no longer rubbish. BYD has spent this year fighting Toyota and Tesla for the top of the sales charts, and GWM was confident enough in its small electric SUV to run a whole public event off three of their batteries a fortnight ago.

Read down that column and the Subaru Uncharted is the dearest car on the list, level with a Volvo and a Cupra. What it has that they do not is two motors and 252kW, so the money is not wasted. What it does not have is a reason for someone shopping at $45,000 to stretch another fifteen thousand, and the Toyota version of the same car will sit a few thousand under it in the same showroom precinct.

Subaru’s own answer is the badge and the all-wheel drive, and for the people who have owned four Foresters that will be enough. For everyone else the Subaru Uncharted has to win on being a nicer car to drive than a Toyota C-HR+, because it is the same car with a different grille and a higher price. Test drives are on now at retailers nationwide.

Subaru Uncharted Specifications

More Subaru Stories

• Subaru Forester Hybrid Continues Australia’s Petrol Era Fade
• Subaru Trailseeker And Toyota bZ4X Touring: Toyobaru EV Twins Compared
• EVs and utes score in latest ANCAP safety results

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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.