Two statements define our experience with the 2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD – the Japanese car maker’s latest electric SUV. “It drives like a WRX” and “how much is it, because this is our next car”. Both are true of the compact, almost coupe-like offering.

It’s reflective of the vehicle itself, which is exceedingly well put together on the road. There are some faults, but we’ll get to those in a moment. To say the brand is confident in this vehicle is an understatement.

With outstanding power, razor-sharp handling and symmetrical all-wheel drive, that’s hard to argue with. It also makes it easy to drive the wheels off the thing, both on and off road, and we did. On the black top, it’s a comfortable, solid performer that offers excellent ride and handling.

That's along with instant acceleration, especially in Power mode. On the dirt, it’s proper silly if you want it to be, diving into corners and eating up gravel surfaces with aplomb. Dual-mode X-Mode brings grip control, with a multi-terrain monitor and 211mm of ground clearance.

It’s small, nimble and quick. A low, battery-in-the-floor centre of gravity adds to that. An 11m turning circle make the direct steering outstanding, while a responsive front end lets it dart through gaps, turn in sharply and change direction in a hurry.

2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD

Take it on a twisty road and it will happily carve through a set of backroad bends. Offered in Australia in a single dual-motor trim, you score 252kW of power and 437Nm of torque. It offers DC fast charging at 150kW.

While that’s a little low, it will still charge to 80 per cent in less than 30 minutes. Range sits at a claimed 522km (WLTP) and we managed around 460km in real world testing. It covers the sprint to 100km/h in less than 5.0 seconds with no perceived lag.

We do note that putting it in Eco mode and using the steering wheel paddles to push the regenerative braking to maximum dampens power delivery. While there’s no single pedal driving, level five is pretty damn close.

Around town, it turns heads, thanks to its funky design. If that look is familiar, it’s because the Uncharted is a platform share with Toyota’s fully electric C-HR. Its fastback-inspired roofline drops toward a sharply raked tail.

That gives it the crouched, ready stance of something already in motion, according to Subaru. Sitting on 20-inch alloy wheels, it features the typical EV front end with plenty of flush panels, and what we reckon is one of the coolest lighting signatures around.

2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD

Flush rear door handles disappear into the bodywork, but can sometimes be difficult to locate and open. It’s a design with plenty of attitude. Inside, the Uncharted features a pretty roomy cabin for its size, and a decent boot.

There’s a shift dial in the centre console (instead of a column shift or screen controls), which feels more traditional and is definitely easier to use. In the same space, you’ll find access to driving modes, and the aforementioned X-Mode off road package.

A 14-inch high-definition touchscreen handles navigation, media and vehicle settings, but does show up fingerprints. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto feature. The former connected every single time as soon as you powered up the car.

The latter struggled massively, having to be re-connected manually on multiple occasions. A 7-inch driver display keeps key information directly in the sightline and physical buttons are retained for the controls like cabin temperature and volume.

A 10-speaker Harman Kardon sound system sports an amplifier and subwoofer and offers crisp audio. Dual wireless chargers and four USB-C ports round out the most frequently used technology. Comfort is well covered too, with heated power front seats and driver seat memory.

2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD

Heated rear outboard seats, and a heated steering wheel feature. Climate settings work together, much like you’d find in a Lexus, a BMW or a similar high end vehicle. In a nutshell, the seats, steering wheel and air-conditioning bring the cabin to 25-degrees when it’s freezing, for example.

Multi-colour ambient lighting is standard, and a panoramic glass roof is available as an option (which was fitted to our test car). There’s no glove box, but you will find physical manuals hidden beneath the centre cubby, and there’s storage under the console too.

The door bins are decent and you get 403-litres of boot space. The second row offers adequate legroom, but if you’re taller than 183cm, your head will touch the roof, thanks to its sloping lines. The Uncharted AWD offers a 1,500-watt Vehicle-to-Load outlet too.

Subaru Safety Sense uses a camera and radar to read the road ahead continuously, interpret what it sees and act, via dynamic radar cruise control, lane trace assist, and a pre-collision setup that will step in when it detects a hazard.

An emergency driving stop system can bring the car to a controlled halt if it senses the driver may have become unresponsive, while a driver monitor watches for signs of drowsiness. Other than a little over-excitement from the last of these, they all work well.

2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD

Vision Assist adds blind spot monitoring, a decent panoramic 360-degree view monitor, rear cross traffic alert and safe exit. The 2026 Subaru Uncharted AWD joins the Solterra and Trailseeker in the brand’s EV range.

Priced at $59,990 plus on-roads, it’s backed by a 5-year unlimited kilometre warranty, 8-years or 160,000km of battery coverage, 5-years or 75,000km of capped price servicing and 12-months free roadside assistance.

This article first published on Exhaust Notes Australia.


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