Author: EVAI

The updated 2025 Kia Sorento PHEV is already being recalled, due to possible fuel leaks that present a fire risk. The recall of 1,385 plug-in hybrid crossovers aims to address the potential for the steering rack to damage fuel lines in a crash, according to the NHTSA. This can occur during certain frontal collisions due to the front subframe being…

Redesigned three-row SUV looks like the Yukon A new 2.5-liter turbo-4 and 8-speed automatic could use a recalibration The lovely Denali trim has a not-so-lovely price of $64,000 The redesigned GMC Acadia three-row SUV grows larger, looks more truck-like, and now employs a 2.5-liter turbo-4 with an 8-speed automatic transmission. There are some…

• The 2025 Subaru Solterra costs $39,915
• Subaru cut the EV’s base price by $6,500 compared to the 2024 model
• Subaru works the $7,500 tax credit toward lower lease numbers
  

Like its Toyota cousin, the bZ4X, the 2025 Subaru Solterra receives significant price cuts for the new model year, plus a new dark-themed appearance package.

Subaru confirmed 2025-model-year pricing Friday, including a new base price of $39,915 for the entry-level Premium grade, with destination. That price is $6,500 less than the 2024 model, although some of that is countered by an increase of the destination charge from $1,345 to $1,420.

The Solterra Limited grade also receives a $6,500 price cut, bringing its MSRP to $43,415 with destination. This grade adds features like 20-inch wheels, power-adjustable front seats, a power tailgate, an 11-speaker Harman Kardon audio system, and a 12.3-inch touchscreen, compared to the Premium’s 8.0-inch screen.

2025 Subaru Solterra

2025 Subaru Solterra

2025 Subaru Solterra

Touring models now start at $46,415—$7,000 less than the 2024 model year. They get additional convince features, including a moonroof, a digital rearview mirror and ventilated front seats (heating is standard on all models).

As with the 2024 model, Subaru claims that the 2025 Solterra “will qualify for applicable tax credits of up to $7,500 for some consumers.” Despite not being assembled in the U.S., and not qualifying for the purchase credit, Solterra leases are indeed subsidized by the so-called “leasing loophole” that allows captive credit companies to claim imported EVs to be leased as commercial fleet vehicles. Automakers and their credit firms offering the lease are under no obligation to pass the full credit along to consumers. Meanwhile, the EV tax credit in its various forms is reportedly being targeted by the incoming Trump Administration.

For an additional $500, the new-for-2025 Onyx Edition gives the Touring grade black wheels and exterior trim and two-tone color options. This makes it similar to the Nightshade Edition that joins the Toyota bZ4X lineup for 2025. The Toyota has also gotten less expensive, with price cuts of up to $6,000.

2025 Subaru Solterra

While the bZ4X is available with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, in keeping with the Subaru ethos, the Solterra is available with dual-motor all-wheel drive only. Subaru lists output as 215 hp and 249 lb-ft of torque, with power supplied by a 72.8-kwh battery pack as in the bZ4X. EPA range is unchanged, at 227 miles for Premium models and 222 miles for other grades, which have larger 20-inch wheels.

Subaru launched the Solterra as a 2023 model and made a number of changes for 2024, including an improved battery conditioning system that allows for faster charging. DC fast charging from 10% to 80% takes about 35 minutes, Subaru estimates. That still makes the Solterra one of the slower-charging electric crossovers. In a test drive of the 2024 Subaru Solterra, we found that while charging remains at a crawl, it’s now in the same efficiency ballpark as the rival Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Volkswagen ID.4.

• VW bypassed conventional dealerships for selling upcoming Scout electric trucks
• Dealer interests in California say this is in violation of franchise laws
• Existing automakers sell vehicles via franchise or direct model, but not both

California has the most EV-friendly policies of any state, but that warm-and-welcoming attitude isn’t shared by the state’s franchised dealerships.

A group of those dealerships has threatened legal actions against the Volkswagen Group’s new Scout Motors EV brand, if it doesn’t stop taking reservations for its electric Terra pickup truck and Traveler SUV due in 2027.

Scout has said that it will rely on a direct-sales model—similar to that of other all-electric brands like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid.

In a December 20 letter to Scout Motors general counsel Neil Sitron and VW Group of America general counsel Antony Klapper, first spotted by Automotive News, the California New Car Dealers Association said the direct-sales plan “wrongfully cuts new and existing VW dealers out of an opportunity” and allegedly violates California’s franchise laws.

Scout Traveler concept

“California law states that manufacturers may not compete with their own franchisees by using affiliates to directly sell or service vehicles, which is precisely what VW and Scout intend to do,” the letter said.

Dealers have been grumbling about direct sales since Tesla rolled out its sales infrastructure over a decade ago. At the time Tesla indicated that it didn’t feel its electric vehicles would get a fair chance being sold at franchised dealerships alongside gasoline vehicles. Dealers responded with lobbying campaigns at the state level to protect franchise laws, something Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has called “as close as you can get to corruption.”

But while automakers like Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid all rely partly on company-owned showrooms, they’ve also never used franchised dealerships. Scout, on the other hand, is still part of the VW Group, so the argument seems to be that VW can have dealerships or it can have direct sales, but it can’t have both—even if the different sales models were siloed by brand.

Scout Terra concept

Volvo found the right balance with Polestar, which has been allowed by the states as a direct-sales model, but with some level of customer service—and the service-and-repair operation itself, in many cases—connected to Volvo dealerships.

An approach like that might have helped to cool tempers here. U.S. dealerships had been asking VW for pickups for years, and VW didn’t keep dealerships in the loop at all about the Scout brand. It came as a complete surprise.

Meanwhile, VW recently took a $5.8 billion stake in Rivian, which happens to already make trucks that are very close to the same format as Scout previewed in concept form earlier this fall, still more than two years away from production. And, in Rivian’s case, its network of company-owned showrooms are already in place.

Mid-2025 arrival of Forester Hybrid now pegs it for 2025 model year, not 2026 Signs aren’t pointing to a charge port for this Subaru AWD hybrid Hybrid system was developed with Toyota, plus yet-to-be-detailed Subaru bits Subaru has adjusted the timeline for its upcoming Forester Hybrid, which marks the first time a hybrid powertrain has been…

A Subaru Forester Hybrid will be available starting mid-2025 The electrified compact crossover’s hybrid system was likely developed with Toyota A redesigned Subaru Outback is also arriving soon Subaru will look to take advantage of renewed interest in hybrid vehicles with the launch of the 2025 Forester Hybrid next year. Subaru’s website already…

Sixth-generation Subaru Forester gains hybrid powertrain in 2025 Powertrain will likely be new Strong Hybrid with uprated electric motor Rugged Forester Wilderness also in the works Subaru has offered hybrid versions of the Forester in other markets for years, but an electrified version of the popular compact crossover is finally coming to the…

• The 2025 Nissan Ariya costs $40,980
• The longest-range model will go up to 289 miles on a charge
• The Ariya now has Tesla Supercharger access

The Nissan Ariya lineup is condensed for 2025, with the longest-range variant lost in the shuffle.

The number of trim levels shrinks from eight to six. Prices hold steady after substantial cuts for the 2024 model year, with the base Engage model costing $40,980 after the mandatory $1,390 destination charge. That buys a single-motor front-wheel-drive powertrain and 66-kwh (gross, 63 kwh usable) battery pack.  A dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain, dubbed e-4ORCE, is a $4,000 option on this grade, with the same size pack.

2025 Nissan Ariya

Nissan continues to offer a 91-kwh (87 kwh usable) pack, which delivers 289 miles of range in the front-wheel-drive Evolve+ grade. That model, which is priced at $45,760 with destination, now offers the most range of any Ariya grade, as the 304-mile Venture+ model has disappeared from the lineup. So has the Empower+ front-wheel-drive grade.

All-wheel-drive models with the larger pack round out the lineup. The least expensive way to get this combination is the Engage+ e-4ORCE, which costs $46,760 after destination. Evolve+ e-4ORCE ($49,760) and Platinum+ e-4ORCE ($55,760) grades are positioned above it.

2025 Nissan Ariya

Wireless device charging is now standard on all grades, and Nissan has begun rolling out Tesla Supercharger access. For now, Ariya owners need a $235 adapter for this, but Nissan plans to begin fitting new EVs sold in the U.S. with Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports starting in 2025.

The Ariya was a Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2024 finalist, and will reportedly be joined by a smaller electric crossover replacing the long-serving Nissan Leaf, but it’s unclear if apparent merger talks with Honda will affect that plan.

A U.K.-based company plans to offer electric conversions of classic Rolls-Royce luxury cars starting in Spring 2026. Evice recently unveiled a prototype of its conversion package as a first step toward the planned commercial launch. Called the XP1, it’s a modified Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow sedan, but Evice aims to offer conversions of the Corniche…

• Vinfast recalled 4,888 VF 8 electric SUVs
• The center airbag mounted to the driver’s seat could deploy improperly
• Vinfast will replace the airbag free of charge

Vinfast is recalling certain VF 8 electric SUVs because of faulty airbags that could injure drivers.

The recall includes 4,888 vehicles from model years 2023 to 2025. The center airbag mounted in the driver’s seat in these vehicles “may deploy improperly” during a side impact, striking the driver’s arm and potentially causing injuries, according to the NHTSA.

Vinfast estimates that 100% of the recalled vehicles have this defect, which the automaker said it became aware of after a test conducted by the NHTSA in June that led to a safety inquiry.

2023 Vinfast VF 8

The defect is due to the cushion shape and inflation angle of the original airbag design, which allows the airbag to deploy between the driver’s arm and torso in some circumstances, the NHTSA said. Vinfast worked with the agency to redesign the center airbag with a different shape and deployment angle to prevent this from occurring.

Dealers and service centers will replace the center airbag with one of the new design free of charge. Vinfast initially pursued a direct-sales model like Tesla, with company-owned showrooms and service centers, but began pivoting to a franchised dealer model in late 2023.

Vinfast expects to mail owner notification letters Jan. 20, 2025. Owners can also call the automaker’s customer service department at 1-833-503-0600 for more information.

2023 Vinfast VF 8

The VF 8 is Vinfast’s first U.S.-market vehicle, but its launch hasn’t gone smoothly. An initial prototype drive indicated Vinfast had a long way to go, development-wise, before the electric SUV’s 2023 launch. And a follow-up test drive of the production version led us to warn that, even at that stage, it simply didn’t feel ready yet. But Vinfast’s first announced update was a Sony entertainment system that didn’t seem to address the VF 8’s core issues.

Things haven’t gone well for Vinfast since the launch of the VF 8. Earlier this year the company said it was falling behind with sales targets and delayed a planned North Carolina factory. Nonetheless, Vinfast is moving ahead with the launch of its three-row VF 9 SUV.