Kia EV5 vs Subaru Solterra

The Subaru Solterra costs £13,160 more than the Kia EV5. For that premium it adds a 1.4s quicker 0-62mph time. The Kia EV5 is not just cheaper - it also offers 40 miles more WLTP range and 61 litres more boot space. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Subaru Solterra comes out ahead overall.

The Kia EV5 is £13,160 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £168 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Kia EV5 comes out roughly £13,080 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 235 miles for the Kia EV5 and 241 miles for the Subaru Solterra - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 31 minutes in the Kia EV5 and 20 in the Subaru Solterra, so the Subaru Solterra loses less time at each stop.

The two are within 15 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 540 mm of total clearance for the Subaru Solterra and about 525 mm of total clearance for the Kia EV5. The Kia EV5 also turns in a 0.4 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 89% battery health for the Kia EV5 and 84% for the Subaru Solterra. That gives the Kia EV5 a modest edge in retained real-world range. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.