News

Subaru has given its Solterra electric SUV a wide-reaching update that introduces a new look, extra range and more performance.

Arriving in the UK in early 2026, the facelifted EV had its covers pulled off at the New York motor show, where the Japanese firm also revealed the new Outback-sized Trailseeker electric SUV.

The new Solterra is visually a big depart from the car it replaces, with a new front panel and new headlights.

It follows its Toyota bZ4X and Lexus RZ siblings in being updated with a fresh look as it vies to compete with new rivals in the busy electric family SUV segment.

In that pursuit, the Solterra's underpinnings have been significantly upgraded. Key to that is a new 74.4kWh lithium ion battery, replacing a 71.4kWh unit. 

This boosts range to “more than” 285 miles on the US's EPA test scale, says Subaru, which it claims is 25% more than offered by the outgoing model.

While WLTP figures have yet to be confirmed, this means the SUV could offer as much as 356 miles - mirroring the improvements made to its also updated Toyota and Lexus siblings.

Subaru claims the new Solterra is better equipped for colder climates (a key criticism of the previous car), thanks to improvements made to the motors and the battery.

What’s more, a new battery pre-conditioning system will allow for faster charging speeds in all temperatures. It can now charge at speeds of up to 150kW, allowing for 10-80% fill-ups in less than 35 minutes.

The Solterra’s four-wheel-drive powertrain now makes 230bhp, up 15bhp, in standard form. A new XT trim - as of yet unconfirmed for the UK – boosts this even further to 333bhp, giving a 0-60mph time of less than 5.0sec.

Both motors can now work better independently, and the power controller has been improved. In all, these updates improve driving performance on and off road and in different weather conditions, says Subaru.

Pricing has yet to be revealed, but the Solterra currently starts at £52,505 in the UK.

Hot hatches are the Goldilocks performance cars – they're fast, mischievously good fun, whole-heartedly practical and some are even quite affordable. What is not to like?

The best hot hatches come from a recipe that has been around for decades: take an otherwise ordinary hatchback, up the performance and upgrade its powertrain and chassis technologies. 

Some car makers even hand them over to their own in-house performance sub-brands to work their magic. Think Mercedes-AMG, Hyundai N, Toyota's Gazoo Racing and Ford Performance.

Hot hatchbacks are equally capable of zipping through city streets or tackling winding roads, offering exhilarating driving experiences without sacrificing everyday usability. 

You should make the most of them while you still can. Increasingly strict emissions regulations mean hot hatches are no longer the overtly affordable performance machines they once were. 

Although internal combustion still rules the roost, there’s a definite sense that these petrol-engined machines are the last of the breed. Two cars on our list are actually electric. 

But which should you choose? We think the Toyota GR Yaris is the best hot hatch money can buy today, offering stunning cross-country pace, engaging handling and compact proportions. 

Read on for our full top ten list of the best hot hatches on sale today. Whether you're after speed, style, or versatility, these cars have it all.

The Autocar was the very first motoring magazine to use a standardised series of tests to deliver a verdict, and nearly 100 years on, we're still doing it.

Things have changed since those early days, of course. Sadly our early road testers are unfortunately no longer with us, but some of the magazine's more recent alumni have shared their memories.

Below you'll find the ones we could actually legally use.

John Barker

“I was a bit surprised to find myself going backwards at 100mph. One moment I was steering the Nissan Maxima gently left onto the wet asphalt apron at the end of Millbrook’s mile straight, the next I was fast reversing towards a steep grass bank, bracing for impact...

“An impact that was thankfully soft. I got right to the top of the 30ft bank, the wipers gave a flick, I breathed a sigh of relief – and then gravity asserted itself and we started back down on the wet grass. The Maxima nosed heavily into a French drain and was stuck but, incredibly, unscathed.

"The recovery truck driver said as much, before adding ‘we found this on the driver’s seat’ and presenting me with a sizeable turd that was, in fact, part of the soil sample the Maxima’s tailpipes had made on impact and chugged out on the way back down.”

Chris Chilton

“Tyres tests were an Autocar regular in the early 2000s and as a junior road tester, I was tasked with taking a Ford Transit full of fresh rubber to Michelin’s Ladoux track in the middle of France in preparation.

“Naively/stupidly taking as read Chris Harris’s dubious assertion that I’d easily be able to get there, dump the tyres and get back to Teddington in a day, I set off for France with no spare clothes, no hotel and, this being 2002, no smartphone to book one. By the time I’d arrived, the facility was closed and I spent the night driving back and forth between autoroute toll booths to stay warm.

“Years later as road test ed I made up for it, sending my rookie to deliver the rubber and then flogging the lot to a part-worn tyre dealer three weeks later.”

Gavin Conway

“It's May 1994. The McLaren F1 Autocar was testing sat before me, V12 ticking as it cooled on a remote Welsh road. At the time, road test supremo Andrew Frankel said the magazine would never run figures on a faster car (he hadn’t anticipated the Bugatti Veyron).

"The F1’s 627bhp magnificence could reach 100mph in 6.3sec and top out at 240mph, and 25 years ago it cost a staggering £627,000 (we also didn’t anticipate that today you won’t get change from £11 million if you want a good one).

“I hadn’t been a road tester for much more than a year and I didn’t really expect to be more than a passenger in the McLaren. So I was baffled when the half dozen or so road testers and snappers piled into the support van.

"The last of them, Autocar superhero Steve Cropley, walked over and handed me the keys to the F1: ‘See you back at the hotel. And take your time.’ Alone, with the keys to a McLaren F1 – I don’t believe I’ve been so trusted since then. Thank you, Autocar.”

Jamie Corstorphine

“In 2008, I was running a long-term Caterham 7 and, in search of a destination for a farewell journey, I ended up touring the Isle of Man.

"I was so impressed by the quality of the roads and hospitality of the locals that I returned with a pitch to base our annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car contest there. The fact that the local officials had offered to close a road sealed the deal with the editor. 

“It turns out that closing a road on the Isle of Man is as simple as completing a form, turning up at the transport depot to pick up a few cones and ‘Diversion’ signs and setting to work yourself.

"At the time, the whole thing felt somewhat unreal. Five of the year’s best driver’s cars and one spectacular mountain road all to ourselves. Even the rain held off.

“Until the next morning, that is, when a huge storm blew in, resulting in the single worst ferry journey I have experienced.”

David Vivian

“Two enterprising guys – I forget their names – had travelled to Germany to buy an Amphi-Ranger, a sizeable, angular amphibious 4x4, with a view to marketing the vehicle in the UK.

"After taking delivery, they drove it back to Blighty. Thing is, when they came to the English Channel, they didn’t stop, and spent the next 21 miles dodging ferries and cargo ships. How could we resist the offer of a spin to the Isle of Wight? 

“A day that starts with a bump across a Portsmouth pavement and a sandy slither past open-mouthed beach dwellers towards the sea has a certain surreal promise, although the anxiety aroused by the sight of my hosts’ legs dangling through the open sunroof and a brick on the accelerator to provide forward thrust was rivalled only by the urgent flashes of bilge pump warning light.

"No matter. We gatecrashed Cowes week, trundled across Ryde and eventually, back in the briny at low tide, got stuck on a Solent and bank. At which point I opened the door, removed my shoes, leapt into six inches of water and walked to the nearest pub.”

Andrew Frankel 

“It's the launch of the original Ford Mondeo in 1993. For Autocar readers, the first group test was probably the story of the year and, as road test editor, it was my job to deliver it.

"Ford had hired the Byblos hotel in St Tropez, so we drove the rivals down for the showdown the next day. Then an American called Jack Daniels got involved, after which I remember nothing.

“The next day, I was so ill I’d pretend to take each car for a blast in the hills, only to drive out of sight, park and sleep for an hour. Then one of our number inverted the Primera, while another threw up three times on the way to the airport.

"Proud? No, and 25 years later I still cringe at the thought. But we got the test done and, most importantly, got the verdict right. That Mondeo was a landmark, so much so that not even the hangover from hell could disguise it.”

Chris Harris 

“June 1999. I flew into Stuttgart and took a taxi to Zuffenhausen – home of Porsche and a place I’d wanted to visit all my life. Just seeing the signs near the factory triggered spasms of joy, but the reason for my visit was almost too much to comprehend: to collect a new sports car called the GT3, a faster, more track-savvy version of the water-cooled 996.

"I signed the collection document and primed the map book to take me to Calais via every possible type of road. I drove at 180mph on autobahns and zipped through France on N-roads before landing in the UK, in the first GT3 ever to do so.

"I was 24 and thought – still think, in fact – that I had the best job in the world.

“These would go on to be the cars I would grow to love above all others. That was one of the happiest days of my life, because I was never happier than when I worked at Autocar. I still have that collection document.”

Simon Hucknall

“There's a reason why Autocar uses one of the UK’s two proving grounds for recording road test numbers: both have arrow-straight sections of at least one mile, allowing testers to pick off important ‘accel’ figures with ease, including the standing kilometre.

"But neither was free the day I had to run figures on the then new Maserati 4200 in 2002, so I headed for the Longcross test track instead. Longcross doesn’t have a mile straight; in fact, the only straight section it has is barely a kilometre, ending in a banked 180deg bend.

"Overshoot and you’re on the M3. The near-400bhp Maser was, Chris Harris assured me, a ‘sub-24-second car’ over that kilometre. At 125mph, I was two seconds shy of that target; at 130mph, I nearly spun braking so hard into the turn; and at 132mph/24.7sec, I received a ‘reckless’ warning from track control and had to call it a day. So, close, Mr Harris, but no cigar.”

Matt Prior

“Sometimes, when we performance test extremely fast cars at MIRA, its maker will send a support crew, who diligently check pressures and temperatures and offer new tyres every few minutes.

"Occasionally, they even send a driver to advise how to get the best from the car. Once Ferrari sent ‘Marc’, who turned out to be Marc Gene (who was utterly charming and thought our wet handling circuit was hilarious).

“When Porsche said it would support the 918 Spyder test, then, we thought we knew what to expect – which wasn’t one bloke in a 4x4 with some wheels in the back that stayed precisely where they were.

"His idea of checking the 918’s tyres was to put a cigarette down for just long enough to place a hand on a tyre to see how warm it was and shrug.

“Thus approved, the 918 went around our dry handling circuit a full second faster than a McLaren P1.”

Matt Saunders

“Morgan's elegant 'aero' series of flagship sports cars had escaped the full road test treatment until 2012, when Matt Prior and I took delivery of one of the factory’s ‘supersport’ Aero Coupe at MIRA.

“We watched it roll off the delivery trailer. It looked lovely. We cracked on with our numbers – until halfway through our dry handling lap times when there was a nasty lurch, the engine cut out abruptly and the brake pedal went worryingly dead.

"Turns out an engine mounting had failed, and the wayward motor had snagged and tugged loose the car’s brake lines while it was thrashing around. And so, contrary to our plans, it left MIRA the same way it had arrived.

“Three years later, I was figuring Radical’s Radical RXC500 Turbo when, at almost precisely the same point on MIRA’s Dunlop circuit where the Morgan came to rest, the Radical’s gearbox seized, ejecting me off across the damp grass, at speed, towards the tyres (which, pleasingly, I missed). It’s not my favourite corner.

“You will recall reading neither test, because neither car completed the process, neither could be photographed and so neither appeared. That’s the thing with low-volume British sports cars: you never quite know what’s going to happen.”

Kia is poised to take on the Volkswagen Golf with a striking new petrol-powered hatchback aimed at global markets – and an eventual European launch could be on the cards.

The new Kia K4 - shown in the metal for the first time at the New York motor show – will be offered in North America, Asia and the Middle East as a Skoda Octavia-style liftback as well as a traditional five-door hatch. Compared to the saloon, the hatch is 279mm shorter.

Power comes from either an atmospheric 147bhp 2.0-litre or turbocharged 190bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine. The hatchback is offered with GT-Line and GT-Line Turbo variants which receive sport-tuned suspension that, Kia says, improved handling.

While the K4 hatch will arrive in the US in late 2025, it is expected to also make its way to Europe in the near future. 

Test mules have been spotted by our spy photographers near Kia’s engineering centre in Russelsheim, Germany. Although a spokesperson for Kia UK told Autocar that this does not mean the car is poised to go on sale in Europe – and that there are no such plans at present – there are signs of its viability in this market.

The similarly positioned Ceed continues to sell well in Europe despite being an older car than many of its rivals, having been launched in 2018. 

This suggests the Ceed remains a viable product despite the market’s broader shift toward SUVs. The larger Kia Sportage achieved 87,164 sales over the same period.

Assuming a typical product cycle of eight years, the Ceed is due for replacement around 2026. However, Kia has yet to announce any plans for a next generation, which suggests it could look to other models in its portfolio to fill that gap.

The new EV4 is in effect an electric successor to the Ceed, with similar proportions – 4.4m long and 1.8m wide – and a five-door body.

But given that the growth of EV sales in Europe has fallen short of many manufacturers’ expectations, it is possible that Kia would need a combustion-engined model to plug a Ceed-sized hole in its line-up until demand for EVs catches up with previous forecasts. That could provide the business case for importing the K4, which is built in Mexico.

Kia has already committed to adding more hybrid cars to its line-ups across the globe “to manage fluctuation in EV demand”, reinforcing the case for a combustion-engined Ceed successor. Although the K4 does not yet offer a hybrid powertrain, it could be among the nine new cars set to gain one by 2028 "across most major model lines globally".

The Subaru Trailseeker has been revealed as an electric counterpart to the Outback estate that prioritises off-road capabilities.

Subaru's first electric car to be developed in-house, it offers four-wheel drive and the same 8.3in (211mm) of ground clearance as the Solterra electric SUV.

The machine will launch first in the USA in early 2026, but will be a key part of Subaru's plans to expand its EV line-up in Europe – although it has yet to be confirmed if the Trailseeker name will be used.

The Solterra is twinned with the Toyota bZ4X, and while the Trailseeker shares the same platform as those machines it has been conveiced purely as a Subaru. Inoue Masahiko, Subaru's EV product manager, said it featured about 70% Subaru parts and would be built at one of the firm's factories, while the Solterra is manufactured by Toyota.

The Trailseeker packs a pair of 201bhp motors (one per axle) that offer a maximum system output of 375bhp, enabling a 0-60mph sprint time of 4.4sec. The Solterra features a smaller motor on the rear axle, and Inoue-san said the decision to offer two identical motors was made by Subaru to optimise its all-wheel-drive performance.

The machine's 74.kWh lithium lithium ion battery yields a range of 260 miles (on the US's EPA test cycle, rather than Europe's more lenient WLTP standard) and can be charged at rates of up to 150kW, so a 10-80% fill can take less than 35 minutes. 

It can tow loads of up to 1588kg and offers several drive models for surfaces including snow and deep mud, as well as a hill descent control system.

Inside, it's said to offer slightly more cargo space than the Solterra, putting it on a par with the Outback.

There's a 14.0in infotainment touchscreen (the biggest fittest in a Subaru yet) and a high-set digital instrument panel too.

Subaru has yet to announce pricing, but the Trailseeker is likely to be positioned above the Solterra.

Deliveries will begin early next year in the US, with the UK and other European markets close behind. 

As well as revealing the Trailseeker and a heavily revised Solterra at the New York motor show, Subaru has confirmed it will launch two more EVs this year – although only one of those will come to Europe.

While Subaru has yet to reveal details it's possible that - as the Solterra is twinned with the Toyota bZ4X – this will be a restyled version of the new Toyota C-HR+. The two firms have an extended partnership to develop more joint EV models, although Subaru is working on its own purely developed in-house EVs for 2028 onwards.