Subaru's Second Electric Car: Plug-in Stella

While Toyota is quickly becoming the world's go-to brand for hybrids,

could

Subaru be the brand to purchase pure electric-powered cars from? This could very well be the case, as the

Japanese automaker best known for its all wheel drive cars and crossovers showed off

its second electric-powered vehicle earlier this summer, the Plug-in Stella.

Besides

being a different and more practical body style, shared with a production

car that offers seating for four, the Stella uses the same general

running gear as the R1e. It features a 40 kW (53.6 horsepower) electric motor that's

charge. The Plug-in Stella Concept is also good for 50 mph, which is

perfect for urban areas, provided that one doesn't venture onto a

freeway.

Like the R1e, the electric Stella

can charge its batteries to full from empty in

eight hours' time, but

if you're in need of a quick refuel it can be replenished to 80-percent of

its full capacity in a mere 15 minutes.

The battery, which was developed

in part with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), doesn't face the

usual memory-related problems that have plagued other quick-charge

vehicles.

For the time being Subaru has

committed to building five Stella Plug-In vehicles, all of which will

go towards testing and evaluation. The info gathered from this project

will be combined with results obtained from the 40 R1es that are

currently in testing, pushing Subaru towards a more mass produced electric.

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