Toyota bZ4X is cheaper than Subaru Solterra but ends up costing more in the US

Buying a new EV is not as straightforward as we all would have liked. With all kinds of incentives, government subsidies, credits and various special short and long term deals it is becoming a real exercise in financial awareness. Toyota seems to have fallen a victim of such a situation or to be more exact - victim of its own success.

Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra are twins yet their pricing is quite different. The Subaru starts at $44,995 before the federal tax credit of $7,500 - simple so far. Subaru only offers all-wheel drive versions unlike Toyota which starts with a front wheel drive model. If we take the cheapest Subaru and Toyota with the all-wheel drive system, Toyota wins the pricing comparison against the bZ4X XLE AWD by $925.

It all starts going weird when we include the $7,500 tax credit from the government. The cheapest front-wheel drive Toyota doesn't qualify for it making it substantially more expensive than the all-wheel drive model which does qualify for the federal tax credit.

That’s not all - the tax credit is available to manufacturers for the first 200,000 low emissions vehicles - so not just EVs. Toyota has used up the bulk of its allowance for Prius and RAV4 plug-in hybrids and now has to sell the bZ4X at full sticker price making it significantly more expensive than its twin, the Subaru Solterra.

With Subaru having barely used up its credits on the PHEV Crosstrek, it is estimated it still has 95 percent of those available and ready for when Solterra becomes available this summer. Toyota, despite launching earlier this spring, will most likely run out of credits by the end of the first half of the year - just when Subaru Solterra will hit the market. Customers decide with their wallets usually, it will be interesting to see how this story unfolds.

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