Indulge me for a moment while I reminisce about winter. Or perhaps more accurately, last week.
As soon as the snow flies I’m reminded of snowy mountain roads, white-knuckle grips of the steering wheel and a turning down the radio so I can concentrate on the road. Please will you keep quiet so I can see the road!?
Late April can turn into a winter month up here just like late September can do the same. We forget what kind of car the 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid can be simply because we have short memories and a fondness for shorter sleeves and shorts when the mercury hits 50. My affirmation of that was when I hit the middle of Iceland in November in a Crosstrek Hybrid and thought immediately, “I’d trade this snowdrift for a beach towel and sunscreen in a heartbeat.” Proof that I fall firmly into my own generalization.
But as we fall out of all-wheel drive weather and into all-air conditioning weather, a few truths have emerged about the XV Crosstrek Hybrid.
The four-seat crossover built by Subaru has been somewhat of a sales meteor for the company’s successful five-year run so far. The XV Crosstrek has surpassed most expectations and emerged as the brand’s third-most popular offering behind Forester and Outback, and well ahead of the Legacy and Impreza. The hybrid version of that car, shown here in retina-searing green, accounts for 10 to 15 percent of that success, but here’s the interesting part: I suspect most of those hybrid buyers aren’t bread-and-butter-Obama-voting-Subaru loyalists.
A Subaru fan might pick out a boxer engine in a snowstorm, but a hybrid buyer will prefer practicality above any badge on the front or back. With a base price of $26,820 for all-wheel drive and electrons in the back, the Crosstrek stands alone as the only sub-$30,000 hybrid crossover with all-wheel drive as standard. That’ll appeal to many shoppers looking for a hybrid something — anything — and who live in places where the occasional April or September snowstorm interrupts our 60-degree winters.
All the standard Subaru features are here: boxy, cross-trainer exterior; grille with a hilariously cute under bite; roof racks and nearly 9 inches of ground clearance. The standard, horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine is here as well mated to a standard continuously variable transmission and Subaru’s all-wheel drive system. The party piece here is the Crosstrek’s batteries in the back, a nickel-hydride system that injects 13 horsepower into the system for 160 total horsepower.
About the batteries: the Crosstrek Hybrid’s system is neither a little bit hybrid, a little bit country nor a little bit rock and roll. The battery’s total 0.55kWh capacity is roughly 1/6th to 1/8th of a Prius’s battery consumption, which is partially why the Crosstrek Hybrid’s 31 mpg combined mileage estimate is only marginally better than the regular, all gas-version’s of 28 mpg. Bigger batteries mean bigger prices, and the Crosstrek starts only $1,500 north of a comparably equipped all-gas model. For now, there are no eye-popping estimates of 50 mpg in the Crosstrek Hybrid. In this model, it’s merely an add-on for in-town drives and quieter cruising (the Crosstrek Hybrid gets a little more sound-deadening than the 2013 Crosstrek did) for when you’re not barreling up canyon roads.
Those kinds of refinements made it further inside the Crosstrek Hybrid as well. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on touchscreen navigation systems, calf massage systems and in-dash refrigerators, Subaru has a habit of offering consumers just enough to keep you occupied until you get where you’re going. The Hybrid doesn’t sell you on technology inside the car, and a dash-mounted information screen displaying battery consumption and power is your only clue that you’d ever be driving a car built after 2004. They make a great case that the destination is the best part of the journey.
And perhaps that’s the best part. For most hybrid car buyers, much of the focus has been on identifying the car as something different. Hybrids stand out as the nerdier bunch of the automotive society, namely because they look, act and drive differently from other cars. The idea the XV Crosstrek Hybrid doesn’t act differently than any other Subaru is the most refreshing part. Here in the mountain states its popularity makes sense because of our need for cars that can adapt to mud, snow, parking lots, pestilence, war and maybe even famine. Don’t believe the weather can get that bad? Just wait five minutes.