Subaru to sell 400 BEVs annually in 5 years

Subaru plans to sell 200 000 battery-electric cars per year by 2026 and to create production capacity for 400 000 BEVs annually by 2028. The increase in production is to be supported by an EV-only factory in the company’s home country.

Atsushi Osaki, who will replace the current CEO Tomomi Nakamura at Subaru in June, told Reuters that half of these forecasted 400 000 BEVs will initially come from mixed production lines of gasoline and electric cars, and the other half from an all-electric car factory, which is due to open its doors in 2027 in Japan’s Gunma prefecture.

Solterra

Subaru has only one all-electric model on the market, the electric SUV Solterra. This vehicle is based on Toyota’s eTNGA platform and is comparable to the Toyota bZ4X. Production of electric vehicles developed by Subaru on the mixed production line mentioned will kick off in 2025, with the BEV-only plant to follow two years later. Details of the models to be built there are not yet known.

“We’re hoping to build a production system where the output ratio of battery EVs, hybrids, and gasoline cars can be flexibly changed while paying close attention to regulations and market trends,” Osaki told the news agency.

First market US, by far

According to Reuters, Subaru heavily depends on sales of its Outback crossover in the North American market. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, Subaru sold 852 000 cars worldwide. The United States accounted for 70% of this total. With a production capacity of 400 000 BEVs, Subaru could cover almost half of its sales with electric cars.