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
powered by a lithium-ion battery pack good for 50 kilometers per
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.