Redesigned 2026 Subaru Solterra, Toyota bZ Score Lower in Crash Tests Than 2025 Models

What Car Shoppers Need to Know

• Subaru Solterra and Toyota bZ updated for 2026
• Pre-face-lift electric vehicles earned Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick+ awards
• Both electric SUVs fell short in multiple tests.

With more power, more range and more charging options, the Subaru Solterra and its mechanical twin, the Toyota bZ, are thoroughly upgraded for 2026. But recent crash-testing performed by the IIHS has revealed that not everything was improved.

Prior to the face-lift, both electric SUVs earned Top Safety Pick+ honors, the institute’s highest award. Being named a Top Safety Pick+ requires a vehicle to earn top marks in three different crash tests, as well as in headlight evaluations and forward collision avoidance technology testing. Post-update, the vehicles failed to qualify for even the second-tier Top Safety Pick award — and they didn’t just barely miss. The 2026 Solterra and bZ fell short in three of the six necessary tests.

Related: 2026 Subaru Solterra Up Close: Meaningfully Updated, Nearly Competitive

Where the Solterra and bZ Fell Short

The IIHS rates vehicle performance on a four-point scale: good, acceptable, marginal and poor. Whereas the 2025 Solterra and bZ (then known as the bZ4X) earned top marks across the board, the 2026 models slipped to acceptable ratings in both of the frontal crash tests, and their new standard headlights ranked poor, the lowest rating possible.

As chaotic and infinitely variable as car crashes are, there are numerous individual criteria behind the final rating the IIHS issues in each test. For example, more than two dozen measurements go into that single-word rating in the small overlap front crash test, which is performed with just a single dummy in the vehicle. There was no single dramatic change that bumped the Subaru and Toyota EVs down in any test, but there was enough difference in enough variables that the net result is a downgrade.

IIHS Director of Media Relations Joe Young notes that both the 2025 and 2026 models chalked demerits within the scoring of how the dummy engaged with the front passenger airbag during the small overlap test. But the issue was more pronounced in the 2026 model, significant enough to drag the overall rating for that test down to acceptable. Similarly, Young says, in the moderate front overlap test, “there was a higher risk of lower right leg injury risk for the driver than we saw in the 2025 model’s test, as well as too much forward movement of the dummy in the second row.”

The IIHS did change the qualifying criteria for both the Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards from 2025 to 2026. However, Young stresses that the individual metrics necessary to qualify for the good and acceptable ratings within each test remain the same as they were in 2025, saying, “Those lower scores reflect issues uncovered in the latest tests.” The IIHS may have uncovered the fact that issues exist, but now it is on Subaru and Toyota to figure out exactly what those issues are.

When reached for a comment, a Toyota spokesperson said the company is currently reviewing the results.

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