Subaru is a bit later than most legacy carmakers to the electrical car (EV) sport, however is now placing the pedal to the metallic.
The Japanese carmaker introduced as a part of its newest monetary outcomes presentation that it plans to roll out three extra electrical crossovers by the tip of 2026, along with the present Solterra.
These three upcoming Subaru EVs can be in-built Japan at Subaru crops and use batteries sourced by way of its alliance with Toyota. It’s price noting the Solterra is basically a rebadged Toyota bZ4X, with the 2 firms having co-developed the electrical twins.
At this stage it’s unclear if these three new Subaru EVs will launch in Australia.
Along with this announcement, Subaru detailed its roadmap that culminates in having the capability to construct 400,000 EVs yearly by 2028.
With the intention to obtain this, the Japanese carmaker will begin producing EVs in-house at its Yajima plant with the objective of manufacturing 200,000 items per 12 months by “round 2026”.
Subaru may also add a devoted EV manufacturing line round 2027 at its Oizumi plant, which at present manufactures engines and transmissions, with the identical objective of manufacturing 200,000 EVs yearly.
Past this, the Japanese carmaker plans to start producing a next-generation hybrid car setup in 2025. The transmissions for this can be produced on the Kitamoto plant which was previously used to fabricate industrial merchandise.
As beforehand reported, the following CEO of Subaru, Atsushi Osaki, mentioned the corporate will “speed up [its] efforts to deal with the profound transformation that the automotive business is present process”.
The brand new CEO additionally mentioned he would focus on rising gross sales within the US and Australia. The US accounts for round 65 per cent of the carmaker’s gross sales, whereas Australia is the corporate’s fourth largest market after the US, Japan, and Canada.
As famous above, the Subaru Solterra nonetheless hasn’t launched in Australia and was not too long ago delayed till the second half of this 12 months.
The electrical crossover’s arrival has been creeping later and later into 2023, with the corporate initially asserting final 12 months it could contact down within the first half of 2023 earlier than delaying it to mid-year.
Subaru hasn’t specified the influence of abroad recall exercise and has as a substitute cited provide constraints. That’s completely different from Toyota, which hinted it was delaying the launch of the near-identical bZ4X to the fourth quarter of 2023 to receive an up to date mannequin.
The Solterra is anticipated to come back right here solely in dual-motor all-wheel drive configuration, whereas single-motor front-wheel drive variations of it and the bZ4X are provided abroad.
The twin-motor model has 160kW of energy and 337Nm of torque, up 10kW and 71Nm on the single-motor model.
Each variants use a 71.4kWh lithium-ion battery with a most AC charger output of 6.6kW and a most DC charging output of 150kW.
WLTP vary figures for the associated bZ4X put the FWD mannequin at 516km and the AWD mannequin at 470km, with claimed 0-100km/h instances of seven.5 seconds and 6.9 seconds, respectively.
The AWD Solterra contains a Subaru-developed X-Mode AWD management system, as in different Subaru SUVs. It’s additionally out there with 20-inch alloy wheels, whereas the FWD mannequin is simply out there with 18s.
The electrical crossover measures 4690mm lengthy, 1860mm huge and 1650mm tall on a 2850mm wheelbase. That makes it barely longer and wider than a Forester. Floor clearance is 210mm, or 10mm lower than a Forester, whereas kerb weight ranges between 1930kg and 2020kg.
The Solterra and bZ4X are underpinned by a brand new electrical car structure, co-developed by Subaru and Toyota, which the previous calls the e-Subaru World Platform and the latter calls e-TNGA.
Globally, Subaru and Toyota have run into roadblocks whereas rolling out these fashions.
A crippling wheel hub bolt problem, which might trigger the wheels to fall off, sparked an enormous recall marketing campaign and halted manufacturing for months – Toyota USA even provided to purchase automobiles again – because the manufacturers scrambled to discover a answer.
The Solterra has now been recalled within the US as soon as once more after some autos didn’t obtain the right repair for the hub bolt problem.
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