The only current electric vehicle in the Subaru lineup is the Solterra, an almost identical copy of the Toyota bZ4X.
The automaker will continue to collaborate heavily with Toyota for its upcoming EVs.
Subaru’s own dedicated EVs could arrive in 2025.
Being a fairly small automaker, it is not surprising that Subaru wants to collaborate with bigger partners to develop and produce its upcoming electric vehicles.
This is why the current collaboration with Toyota is expected to continue for many years still since Subaru wants to add a significant number of electric vehicles to its lineup by 2025.
At the moment, the only battery-electric option in Subaru showrooms across North America is the newly available Solterra, which is an almost identical copy of the Toyota bZ4X save from some appearance details and powertrain tuning.
Despite this slow start on the electrification front, Subaru appears ready to accelerate its transition away from combustion engines by investing in the research and development of EVs.
Partnering with Toyota makes sense when considering the size and resources of the company, but its own EV offering isn’t better than Subaru’s consisting solely of the bZ4X in North America.
This could change soon however since the automaker now has a new CEO who seems more willing to embrace electrification than the previous executive.
In addition to the Toyota-based models which will allow it to sell EVs in the coming years, Subaru plans to have its own electric models which could be ready as soon as 2025 as well.
Little is known about these future products at the moment except that they will likely share their assembly line and possibly their platform with the company’s gasoline-powered models until 2027.
This suggests that these models might not be as powerful and efficient as some other EVs on the market which are built using a dedicated platform and different assembly methods.
For example, compromises might have to be made on the size of the battery or the placement of the motors in order to facilitate the manufacturing process.
On the other hand, doing so could help Subaru bring these models to market sooner and with a lower price tag.
Source: The Drive
