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Any hopes of seeing a much wider range of electric Subarus appears to be dashed with the Japanese car manufacturer becoming the latest brand to step back from plans to invest heavily in electric vehicles.
At a recent earnings call Subaru’s global president at Atsushi Osaki said: “the timing of full scale EV production investments would be delayed” due to an ‘“increasing demand for hybrids and the reappraisal of internal combustion engines”.
Only a year ago Subaru outlined in its business update that it would invest A$15b in the development of in-house electric models by 2030. Now that planned investment has been put on hold.
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This won’t stop Subaru from rolling out all its planned electric vehicles. Joint ventures with Toyota to produce EVs are still expected to go ahead. It will mean Subaru will delay its capability to build its own electric vehicles in-house.
Instead in the immediate future Subaru will focus its attention and resources on hybrid and combustion vehicles.
Global electric and hybrid vehicle sales are increasing with a 23 per cent jump in year-on-year sales in October. EV and hybrid uptake in Australia is also increasing, while the popularity of combustion vehicles is waning.
Globally hybrid vehicle sales are experiencing bigger growth. This is reflected in Australia as well where sales for hybrids were up by 25 percent for October, while sales for plug-in hybrids were up 95 per cent.
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The discontinuation of the EV tax credit is also cited by Subaru as a contributing factor in its decision to delay its electric investment push.
Subaru currently has one electric vehicle on sale in Australia - the Solterra - which is the result of a joint venture with Toyota which sells the twin bZ4X. And in other markets Subaru has the Trailerseeker, another SUV co-developed with Toyota.
A third joint venture electric vehicle will see Subaru launch the Uncharted, which is based on Toyota’s C-HR+.
