Subaru CEO Atsushi Osaki recently told Automotive News the carmaker will work together with Toyota on three new fully electric crossovers over the next two years through 2026. Both companies have been working together for a long time, with the Solterra and bZ4X being electric vehicles (EVs) to come out of the partnership.
According to the report, Subaru is cautious about its EV plans in light of wavering demand and is leaning on Toyota rather than making significant investments in time and resources to develop EVs on their own. As of September 2023, Toyota owns a 20.42% stake in Subaru.
“At the moment, it is quite difficult to predict how things will go from here with EVs. There is a huge risk for us to go it alone in this field. We have held talks with Toyota and have agreed that it is better to reduce risks through joint development,” Osaki said.
Toyota announced last May that it will assemble an all-new, three-row electric SUV at its Kentucky facility in the United States, which would enable Subaru to benefit from the federal EV tax credit if its future EVs are also assembled by Toyota there.
According to Electrek, Subaru will build one of the three new EVs at its Yajima plant in Japan for both itself and Toyota, while Toyota will manufacture one in the US, also for both companies. Subaru plans to start in-house EV production in Japan from 2025 with an annual capacity of about 200,000 units. It will then add dedicated EV production lines in 2027, which will add an additional 200,000 units.
Subaru also assembles vehicles in the US, and it was revealed that the company plans to boost Forester production and introduce hybrid variants. “While we have steered toward EVs, we find it important to sell internal combustion products at the same time. So, we already have plans to expand our hybrid product lineup.”
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