Subaru is accelerating its electrification plans, its incoming CEO announced today. The Japanese automaker will expand its EV production capabilities and plans to offer four new electric crossovers by 2028.
The announcement was made by Atsushi Osaki, who is being promoted from his position as head of quality and is taking over as CEO in June. He said that EV production will begin at its Yajima plant, near Tokyo, in 2026, and the Oizumi plant will follow in 2027, reports Autonews.
Both locations will have the capacity to make 200,000 electric vehicles per year, alongside internal combustion vehicles. Subaru’s Yajima plant currently produces the BRZ, Crosstrek, Forester, Impreza, Legacy, and WRX.
Read: Subaru Issues Do Not Drive Order For Solterra, Recalls EV
Subaru previously announced that it was aiming for electrified vehicles to make up 40 percent of its sales by 2030. This will be a major step towards that goal for the automaker, which currently only sells two such models. They are the Crosstrek Hybrid and the Solterra, a badge-engineered version of the Toyota bZ4X that is noted for its underwhelming performance and quality issues.
All four, as yet unnamed electric vehicles will be offered for sale in the U.S. However, production of them all is expected to take place in Japan, barring them from qualifying for federal tax incentives across the Pacific.
The decision is an important one for Subaru, 70 percent of whose global sales come from the U.S. Customers who opt to lease its new vehicles may still be able to get incentives, but its current CEO, Tomomi Nakamura, said he isn’t too worried about incentives.
“I wonder if American consumers choose their cars solely based on tax breaks,” he said. “Our U.S. customers are quality customers. We have a higher ratio of customers buying Subarus with cash, and we also have low loan and lease rates. We also keep our incentives at low levels. We will try not to rely only on the subsidy program.”
Indeed, Subaru announced the new electric models while reporting its results for its fiscal year 2022 (which ended on March 31). In that, it announced that its profits tripled last year, and it expects profits to continue rising in 2023.
