Subaru Solterra vs VW ID.5

The Subaru Solterra costs £15,510 more than the VW ID.5. On the headline specs that premium buys little measurable advantage - the two are closely matched on range, charging and space. The VW ID.5 is not just cheaper - it also offers 63 miles more WLTP range, 87 litres more boot space and 50 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the VW ID.5 comes out ahead overall.

The VW ID.5 is £15,510 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £152 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the VW ID.5 comes out roughly £15,590 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 241 miles for the Subaru Solterra and 293 miles for the VW ID.5 - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The VW ID.5 goes roughly 52 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 20 minutes in the Subaru Solterra and 29 in the VW ID.5, so the Subaru Solterra loses less time at each stop. So the VW ID.5 stops less often while the Subaru Solterra stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 8 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 548 mm of total clearance for the VW ID.5 and about 540 mm of total clearance for the Subaru Solterra. The VW ID.5 also turns in a 1.0 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Subaru Solterra and 84% for the VW ID.5. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.