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Subaru Solterra Pickup Truck Imagined as Fully EV Rival to Ford's Maverick Hybrid

Right now, North American compact pickup trucks have transformed from extinct species into one of the hottest commodities across the automotive market. And it’s largely the “fault” of just two models.
Subaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AG 9 photos
Photo: kdesignag / Instagram
Subaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AGSubaru Solterra EV Pickup Truck rendering by KDesign AG
The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz and the 2022 Ford Maverick are now competing for unibody compact pickup truck glory with massive success. The former is a bit posher, being the SUV with a bed alternative. The latter, meanwhile, is the truck with a crossover SUV heart. And it’s also more affordable, as well as electrified.

As such, in case other automakers would try and best their sustainability levels with a full EV, Blue Oval’s little workhorse would become the main target of contention. Of course, it’s probably just a dream to imagine that carmakers would try to give us a zero-emission unibody compact pickup truck alternative at this point.

And it’s not because they cannot from a technical standpoint. Only that it would not make too much sense to offer a little BEV truck since it might not be able to compete with a $19,995 Ford Maverick XL Hybrid. But that’s of little consequence for the automotive world’s virtual artists. Case in point, here is one with a knack for turning everything into a pickup truck, as of late.

Brazil-based pixel master Kleber Silva, better known as kdesignag on social media, is not impervious to North American compact pickup shenanigans. As such, after recently imagining the unofficial looks of the 2023 VW Amarok, a little Taos “Camp” truck, and even a Fiat Landtrek Ultra pickup for the Eurozone, he is back in the U.S. with a Maverick Hybrid-fighting, bed-equipped Subaru Solterra.

Because of all the quirky Toyota bZ4X-shared design traits, it looks spot-on as an EV compact pickup truck. Only that it’s not viable, at least not in North America, when a Maverick Hybrid can potentially reach up to 600 miles (966 km) with a single tank of gas... The rest of the world is a different matter, so perhaps it’s not just wishful thinking on the artist’s behalf?


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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
Aurel Niculescu profile photo

Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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