As the push for widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption intensifies, smaller automakers are turning to larger conglomerates to help manage the substantial costs of developing new platforms and powertrains.
Subaru is one such company seeking to deepen its partnership with Toyota, which holds a 20 percent stake in Subaru and has plans for three new electric SUVs shortly. These plans were revealed during a recent earnings call, as reported by Automotive News.
Subaru remains committed to its long-term goal of having half of its global sales, approximately 600,000 vehicles, come from EVs. Leading this effort will be the Solterra, a rebadged version of Toyota’s bZ4X, along with three additional crossovers expected by the end of 2026. These upcoming SUVs will be jointly developed and built with Toyota, following the Solterra model.
One of these new EVs will be manufactured by Subaru at its Yajima factory in Japan, while another will be produced by Toyota in the United States. This U.S. built vehicle is expected to be a Subaru-badged version of the upcoming bZ5X, a three-row electric crossover set to be produced in 2025 at Toyota’s Kentucky plant. By partnering with Toyota, Subaru can reduce the risks associated with looking into new propulsion technologies, especially given the uncertain demand for EVs in the U.S.
This collaboration will also enable U.S.-built Subaru EVs to qualify for federal EV tax credits without the need for Subaru to retool its American plants. Despite the collaboration, Subaru plans to release four additional EVs by the end of 2028, which will be developed entirely in-house. Subaru projects global EV sales of 400,000 by 2028 but acknowledged during the earnings call that achieving this target depends on significant demand increases.
This goal is ambitious compared to the 14,000 EVs Subaru sold last year, with 8,872 of those sales occurring in the U.S. In-house EV production is set to begin in Japan in 2025, with an initial capacity of 200,000 units annually, and another production line to be added in Japan by 2027 to support an additional 200,000 units.
Subaru also aims to expand its lineup with hybrid variants of the Crosstrek crossover and Forester SUV. These hybrids will be produced in Japan and Indiana. The Indiana plant currently produces the Legacy sedan, but Subaru has announced that this model will be retired after the 2025 model year. The next hybrid setup is expected to begin production in the U.S. in 2026, and more hybrids are anticipated to join Subaru’s lineup as the company transitions toward electric power.
