Let’s play a word association game. we say this.2026 Subaru Trail Seeker.“Thought it was a 1970s General Motors station wagon with a big-block V-8? No. Then you’re either under 50, you’ve never driven a Trailseeker, or both. Equipped with a timing gear and road tripping in Subaru’s Toyota-designed electric SUV, you’ll discover a huge V-8 with heavy-lifting power. I remember those old wagons with cylinders, and they were smartly dressed muscle cars, at least that’s what our instrumentation tests say.
For those unfamiliar, the TrailSeeker is essentially a stretched version of the Subaru Solterra EV, and in the same way that the Solterra is a rebadged Toyota bZ, the TrailSeeker is a relabeled Toyota bZ Woodland, with differences limited to minor cosmetic changes and major standard equipment changes. (Entry-level Trail Seekers can be had for less with less equipment; the example we tested was the top-of-the-line $48,000 Limited model.) Toyota did most of the engineering work, and Subaru did most of the thinking of good names (or at least that’s what we thought until Uncharted and The Getaway came along).
Silent 455 V-8?
What got us thinking about the old wagon was the Trail Seeker styling. Although it has the stance and ground clearance of a midsize SUV, the Trailseeker’s longback proportions are distinctly wagon-like.
Then we got in the car, turned it on, stepped on the gas, and… Wow. Talk about something like a wagon. This is the electric equivalent of the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, which is powered by the aptly named 455 Rocket V-8 (7.5 liters, 300 horsepower, and 410 pound-feet of trailer-hugging torque). The Vista Cruiser was a hell of a muscle car, and so is the Trailseeker. It feels fast even by EV standards, and far more than you’d expect given the modest-sounding two electric motors’ combined rating of 375 horsepower. Trail Seeker appears calm from the start, but at mid-throttle he delivers a punch that staggers Manny Pacquiao.
We put on timing gear to see how fast the Trail Seeker is. Laying down a patch of rubber that muscle cars would be proud of, it accelerated from a standstill to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. This was half a second faster than Subaru’s own estimates. That’s far from the most impressive number by EV standards, but it’s fast enough to outpace internal combustion engine sportsters like the Porsche Cayenne S and Volkswagen Golf R, and embarrassingly for Subaru, the brand’s own performance-oriented sports cars. WRX tS. Running the quarter mile in 12.5 seconds and with a trap speed of 110.5 mph, the Trail Seeker is in a similarly rare company, within one second of the threshold under which NHRA safety rules require the use of a roll cage.
OK, that works — how does it stop and turn?
From 100 mph, the Trail Seeker came to a stop in a respectable 123 feet. There was quite a bit of noise from the anti-lock system, but there was no pulsation in the pedals. It delivered consistently straight and true stops with very little nose dive. However, on the figure eight lap, the brakes proved to be the enemy. I found it very easy to activate the ABS. Since this is a 4,500-plus pound wagon, brake work is cut out. However, there was a lag between releasing the pedal and the anti-lock releasing its hold, which ruined my corner entry (and, let’s be honest, most of my lap).
I found that I had to brake very early to get it out of the binder well before turn-in. The trail seeker leaned in enough to do it. At the exit of the corner, I spun the inside front wheel and headed straight. Oh yeah, the time was 26.3 seconds, which is on par with sporty SUVs and only 0.2 seconds off the Volkswagen Jetta GLI we last tested.
A frozen New York road trip
The Trail Seeker reminded me of a classic old wagon, so it seemed like a natural vehicle for a road trip. We rode the Trail Seeker from New York City to Rochester on a combination of scenic highways and backroads. Our trip was hit by a late-season cold snap that was expected to wreak havoc on range and charging times. The Trailseeker has an EPA-certified range of 444 miles, but the base model has an additional 6 miles of range. That leaves trail seekers on the wrong side of a 300-mile psychological barrier. our motor trend In our road trip range test, which measures how far an EV can travel from 100 percent state of charge (SOC) to 5 percent at 110 miles per hour, we got a result of 323 miles. (Tests were conducted in warm weather.)
Since the temperature was below freezing, I found that once I charged it to 80%, I had a range of about 200 miles. Trailseeker uses a Tesla NACS port, which gives you more options for fast charging, but charging speeds vary. Preconditioning the battery for quite a while (a process initiated from the center screen) certainly helped. Of course, you would expect charging speeds to slow down above 80 percent SOC, which is typical EV charging behavior, but the only time we saw the Trail Seeker reach and maintain a charging speed of 150 kW (a mediocre number to begin with) was when the battery was nearly empty. If the SOC was slightly higher, charging was initiated and maintained at a lower rate. Subaru claims it takes 28 minutes to charge from 10 to 80 percent, but it always seemed to take about 30 minutes to reach 80 percent, no matter what the SOC was when I plugged it in.
Comfortable ride, constant nagging, lots of button presses
The Trailseeker proved to be a comfortable SUV on the road, but like all Subarus, it can also be stubbornly noisy. As we turned around and admired the view for more than a few seconds, the Trail Seeker sounded an alarm warning of driver inattention. Placing your hand over the steering wheel stop blocks the camera on the column and alerts you to sit down. (Fortunately, Subaru alerts you with a beep rather than an audible sound; you can imagine your mom saying, “Sit down! Don’t slouch!”) To its credit, Trail Seeker uses touch sensors to detect your hands on the steering wheel when lane centering is engaged. This is good. Because all you have to do is loosen up for a few seconds before warning about that too.
Another annoyance: The Trailseeker doesn’t remember your driver settings when you turn it off. When cruising around town, I wanted to drive with automatic hold-on and regen at their highest settings. Every time I turned on the car, I had to press the power button, then the brake hold button, then pull the steering wheel paddles three times. That meant I had to press the button five times instead of one. Oh, and speaking of regen, it’s one of the biggest pain points for trail seekers. Regenerative braking is powerful, but it doesn’t work until you come to a complete stop. To stop Trailseeker, you must press the pedal.
On the plus side, the instrument panel is set close to the windshield and is designed to be visible from beyond, rather than through, the steering wheel, so we quickly got used to it. In contrast to the Toyota bZ Woodland’s round wheels, the Subaru uses square wheels to improve panel visibility. But we still think the wide center console with two phone charging pads is a waste of space. Especially for long drives, a narrower console and more room for knee movement would be preferable. When it comes to legroom, the Trailseeker’s rear seats, like many electric SUVs, suffer from a high floor and limited toe room under the front seats. Kids are fine, but adults may not be too happy about making such a long journey.
I want to go farther than go faster
On this road trip, we didn’t take advantage of one of the Trailseeker’s incredible off-road capabilities that we tested on our first drive. The Trailseeker features 8.5 inches of ground clearance and X-Mode, which Subaru developed for both the Trailseeker and bZ Woodland. There’s no doubt that the Trail Seeker will take on more off-road challenges than you’d expect from an electric SUV. But with a range of 445 miles, how far are you going to go off the beaten path? So far, no one has invented a way to deliver cans of electricity to remote areas. (Portable power supplies are available, but larger container. )
The Trailseeker’s range may be the biggest barrier to its claim as a new-age Olds Vista cruiser. (Again, the old Rocket V8 only got around 12-14 mpg, so range wasn’t all that great.) We’ve been complaining for a while that Toyota and Subaru EVs need longer tethers, and we think cutting back on the Trailseeker’s prodigious power might be one way to get more than 300 miles of range on the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version. With longer range, faster charging, and perhaps a little more consideration to the rear seats and center console, the Trailseeker could be a contender for the ultimate family truckster.
But then again, the Trailseeker stays put and can dust off a Camaro or Mustang at a stoplight, just like your mom could with her rocket-powered Vista Cruiser back in the day. Who can deny that joy to suburban parents?
2026 Subaru Trail Seeker Touring Specification
Basic price
$48,005
tested price
$48,800
vehicle layout
Front and rear motors, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door electric SUV
power train
F: Permanent magnet motor, 224 hp, NA lb-ftR: Permanent magnet motor, 224 hp, NA lb-ft
total power
375 horsepower
total torque
that
transmission
2×1 speed fixed ratio
battery
74.7kWh NMC Lithium Ion
Vehicle weight (F/R distance)
£4,556 (52/48%)
wheelbase
112.2 inches
Length x width x height
190.8 x 73.2 x 65.9 inches
tire
Bridgestone Tranza EL450235/50R20 100V M+S
EPA Fuel Economy, City/Highway/Combined
125/103/114mpg-e
EPA range
444 miles
70 mph road trip range
353 miles
MT quick charging test
120 miles in 15 minutes, 190 miles in 30 minutes
On sale
Q2 2026
MotorTrend test results
0-60MPH
3.9 seconds
quarter mile
12.5 seconds at 110.5 mph
Brakes, 60-0 mph
123 feet
lateral acceleration
0.81g
figure eight wrap
26.3 seconds @ 0.72 g (average)
