Subaru has announced ambitious plans to accelerate its electric vehicle program, aiming to sell 200,000 pure electric vehicles annually by 2026. The company also aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 400,000 EVs by 2028, supported by its own electric vehicle factory in Japan.
Atsushi Osaki, Subaru’s new CEO startin’ this June, spilled the beans on the ambitious agenda. Half of the 400,000 electric vehicles will initially be supplied by a mixed production line of gasoline and electric vehicles, and the other half will come from an all-electric vehicle factory in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, which is expected to start operating in 2027. Subaru currently has only one all-electric model on the market, the electric SUV Solterra, which is based on Toyota’s eTNGA platform. However, the company plans to begin producing its own EVs on the hybrid line in 2025, with a pure-electric vehicle plant two years later.
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On top of the Solterra already on sale now, Subaru’s got three more electric SUVs in the pipeline to launch by 2026. “We hope to establish a production system that can flexibly adjust pure electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, etc. according to changes in regulations and market trends” said Osaki.
Meanwhile, the Subaru SOLTERRA pure electric SUV has been displayed at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show. The new car has exterior dimensions of 4690mm long, 1860mm wide, 1650mm high, and a wheelbase of 2850mm. It is equipped with a 150kW electric motor with front-wheel drive, and a 71.4kWh battery corresponding to a cruising range of 530 kilometers. The combined power of the front and rear dual motors is 160 kW, and with four-wheel drive, the cruising range is 460 kilometers with the same battery capacity. The vehicle also supports fast charging of up to 150 kW.
Subaru relies heavily on sales of its Outback crossover in North America, with 70% of Subaru’s global sales of 852,000 vehicles in 2022 coming from the U.S. market.