We drive our Outback every day. Our average commute is 15-20 miles, but we also take the Outback on our regular camping adventures, so it’s seen some heavy mileage in its short time. In March 2023, we took our vehicle in for regular maintenance. The battery passed its test and indicated no issues per the dealership’s multipoint inspection. This morning, about 2.5 months after service, my Outback would not start in our garage. We called to get it jumped, and the roadside assistance serviceman said my car was not the first, second, or even third Subaru he’d jumped this week. Rather, he said that he’d jumped FOUR other “relatively new” Subaru's this week, alone. The battery does not show any signs of corrosion, and nothing was left on within the vehicle to drain the battery. The dealership themselves—upon calling to verify my battery’s health per the last service—said that Subaru’s been battling “parasitic battery drain” in “so many” cars that there’s been a class action lawsuit…for the models spanning the five years before my car was manufactured. I definitely believe that my 2021 Outback has the same problems as its predecessors, but I really hope this is the only time I have to post on here that my battery needed jumped.

The brand new Subaru 2021 Outback battery drains within about 5 days to the point where the car will no longer start. I charge it for a day before using it. It's not a bad alternator and it's not a fixable parasitic drain, ie no lights are staying on inside the car or anything. Ironically we purchased this car so we could drive it into the mountains and leave it at trailheads while we go on extended backpacking trips. But we wouldn't be able to start the car when we returned. We've had the battery tested and there is no problem with it. It's just a bad electrical system design. Too many features trying to run off of the battery while the car is not running. Like wifi, anti theft, automatic software updates, starlink, etc...

I have had this dead battery issue on at least 3 occasions. Each time was when the Outback had not been driven for a few days. I have to have it jumped. This vehicle is a 2021 model and has only 22,000 miles on it. I have not left any interior lights on, doors unshut, etc. This last time, on March 2, we had returned from a 2 month vacation. I had disconnected the battery before we left and re-connected upon return, and it was dead. I put it on a charger and was able to start it and drive it around to let the alternator do its job. The next morning I got into my Outback to run errands, it was totally dead again. Just about 8 hours after the charge! This weekend I tried to charge it back up to no avail. It hasn't started since.

I now have to have it towed to my Subaru dealership for repairs. I recently found out (thank you Google) that this battery depletion issue has been known to Subaru for a number of years, and there might be a class action lawsuit in attempt to rectify this issue!

Stay tuned!