Subaru Stella Electric Car on sale in Japan
June 5, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
Stella is an interesting name for an electric car, but that’s what Japanese manufacturer Subaru are calling its innovative plug-in electric car, which has gone on sale in Japan as of today. Subaru will begin deliveries from late July.
It will be interesting to see how well the Stella does in the Japanese market, which will no doubt determine whether or not we will see the car in Australia.
The all-wheel drive company (although the Stella’s front-wheel drive only) expects to sell only 170 of the electric cars over the next Japanese fiscal year (finishing March 31, 2010).
The best thing about the Stella is its city-friendly nature. If you live in the City or about 10-30km away from work, the Stella would be perfect.
It manages around 90 kilometers on a single charge, which may not sound like a lot, but wait for the best bit.
It can be recharged up to 80 per cent capacity (72 kilometres) in just 15 minutes using its quick charge system.
In Australia it will be fully rechargable in five hours, so you can plug it in overnight.
While some cars claim to be environmentally friendly, given the Stella is all electric, it produces zero carbon-dioxide emissions.
There are some disadvantages though, it only has 47 kilowatts of power, which is adequate for city driving but may struggle on the highway.
For more information, read our Subaru Stella Road Test.
Subaru Stella Specifications:
| Dimensions (Length x Width x Height) | 3395mm ×1475 ×1660 |
| Curb weight | 1010 kg |
| Passenger seating | 4 |
| Max.speed | 100 km/h |
| Per-charge driving distance | 90 km |
| Electric motor | Permanent magnet synchronous system |
| Max. power output | 47 kW |
| Max. torque | 170 Nm |
| Drive-train | Front-wheel drive |
| Battery type | Lithium-ion batteries |
| Total voltage | 346V |
| Total energy | 9 kWh |
Print it: 
Fast charging actually makes this a great offer from Subaru.
Now the only remaining issue is… how to generate the electicity to power it, without burning coal or creating radioactive waste….. hmmmm.
If 1 in 10 cars in our Australian capital cities converted to one of these puppies, we’d need a LOT of nuclear power stations.
makes sense for, japans crowded cities, and low speed traffic, but no good for australias more open road and freeway network..
Not bad. I wouldn’t mind driving one myself.
Why is it that nearly all of current crop of electric/hybrid cars look like they were designed by a two year old. This one looks like they designed it starting with a cardboard box. Maybe all of the funds go on the drive system, and theres nothing left for the body.
NacaYoda,
A bloke in Ipswich made his own electric car from an old Barina. He charges it with a wind generator he put together himself. So all we need at home is a windmill on the roof, simple.
I would buy one just so i could put “Stanley” number plates on it. :)
Why is it necessary to make eky cars ugly…..is it so we can pick them out in the car park ?
Ahh, another beautiful looking car care of Subaru! (not)
“makes sense for, japans crowded cities, and low speed traffic, but no good for australias more open road and freeway network.. ”
Disagree with more and more people shifting to city life, theres a growing market for these cars..
Why so Ugly? Is there a statotory requirement for all electic cars to look like crap and have the performance of an electric wheelchair?
Have a look at the Tesla Roadster, electric need not look like this. Just use the design of a normal, nice looking car (maybe a toyota Yaris sedan), give it a decent battery pack so it can store enough charge to have a bit of performance and range. I believe for a city car 100km range on a charge is reasonable, so long as it can perform the same as a petrol variant.
My suspision is the car makers make these cars so lame because they don’t want to make them. If there is no demand because of the cars been ugly and slow, they will anounce that there is no market for electric cars and be able to say they tried but the consumer was not interested.
It would only take one maufacturer to ruin it for every one by making an affordable, fast and deirable electric car.
The Salesman, I don’t think a wind generator on your roof will be much good at recharging a car in 15 minutes. Maybe 48 hours would be more realistic (and totally useless for daily driving).
Nuclear or coal… choose your poison for electric vehicles. There is no other viable option yet.
“Disagree with more and more people shifting to city life, theres a growing market for these cars..”
This car is no more out of place here than the Smart series. Only 47Kws but 170nm and 100km top speed, not exactly a grandad scooter. But the question is who styled this beast? Fisher & Paykel?
“Nuclear or coal… choose your poison for electric vehicles. There is no other viable option yet”
Yeah, we don’t want to use that Solar/Wind/Hydro/Geothermal or Wave technology, thats all a bit too dodgy.
Lazybones: I’m all for renewable energy!! But if you put 1 in 10 cars onto the grid for recharging, renewable sources are decades off coping! Renewable sources can’t keep up with regular demand now, let alone if we were to require electricity for cars! Reality is – Coal or Nuclear – for now.