Subaru Stella 2009 Review

The Subaru Stella is one of the new breed of plug-in electric cars that will be commonplace in the world's major cities within a decade, although it is currently an outright oddity.

It is much smaller than a regular Australian city car, only runs for 80 kilometres between re-charges, and would probably cost more than $100,000 - much of the money needed for its high-tech lithium-ion battery pack - if you could actually buy one.

But the Stella is not for sale and is only in Australia as the Subaru star at the Melbourne Motor Show which opens on Friday.

Like the similarly tiny Mitsubishi MiEV, the Stella is being used as a development tool and to raise public awareness of the electric cars which will take up the motoring slack as the world's oil begins to run out.

"We will build 100 cars from August. Subaru is building its base as the world's top electric car company," says the head of the plug-in Stella program, Takashi Suzuki.

"Technically, we can get the top position. It's total technology that gives us the confidence."

Subaru has been partnered with NEC on battery technology for more than five years and is also working hard on the charging technology that will entice people to switch to electric cars. The Stella gets a fast- charge top-up in 15 minutes, although a standard fill from a household socket takes four hours.

It uses eight individual battery packs hidden under the front and rear seats, which power a 15kW-hour electric motor which produces 150 Newton-metres of torque. There is no gearbox and the sparky Stella hits 100km/h when its electric motor is turning at its maximum of 6000 revs.

"The performance is the same as a two-litre gasoline engine," Suzuki says.

Driving

Suzuki’s estimation of performance seems right as I give the electric Stella a brief sprint around a go-kart track in inner Melbourne. The original plan was for a proper road drive, but that was before the Department of Transport and Road Safety in Canberra decided that only Subaru people would be allowed to drive the car on public roads.

The Stella pulls away nicely, feels tight for a Japanese tiddler, and I can feel the regenerative braking topping the batteries as the engine switches to a generator every time I lift off the accelerator.

The air-con still works well enough - one of many systems that run off a regular 12-volt slave battery - but the Japanese satnav cannot decide how Melbourne fits into its memory mapping of Tokyo.

Then we set off into the city with a Subaru man at the wheel and, despite the breakthrough technology and some giant signs down the sides, no-one looks twice at the Stella.

It is still quiet, although very cramped in the back seat, and flows easily with the traffic. It seems to stop well enough but there is - as you expect in an electric car - no noise to warn pedestrians and a louder horn would be a good idea.

The 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show...