Like other Japanese manufacturers, Subaru wants to catch up on electric vehicles. The brand will invest $1.9 billion over five years in the production of batteries and the manufacture of electric vehicles, which will be released in 2027.
The manufacturer Subaru intends to accelerate its electrification strategy. To this end, it plans to invest $1.9 billion over 5 years in setting up a dedicated electric vehicle production line at its main plant, located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. To this will be added the manufacture of batteries.
We will have to wait until 2027 to see the first electric Subaru come out made in Gunma. Indeed, the Solterra, the brand’s first electric SUV developed jointly with Toyota, will initially be manufactured by the latter. Note that Subaru recently opened up order taking for its SUV.
Subaru electric vehicles made in Gunma will mainly be exported to the United States, where 70 percent of sales are made, said Subaru CEO Tomomi Nakamura. The manufacturer aims for 40% of new cars sold by the brand to be electric by 2030. On the other hand, Tomomi Nakamura did not communicate on the production capacity of this new line.
This announcement was made during the presentation of the financial results of the brand, whose operating profit fell by 12% to 701 million dollars. For the new fiscal year that started in April 2022, Subaru forecasts an operating profit of 200 billion yen, more than double that of the past year. That’s better than analysts’ estimates of 196 billion yen.
Follow Tesla’s example
With this production plant dedicated to electric, Subaru follows the example of other Japanese manufacturers, who have finally realized the delay compared to the competition, and in particular a certain Tesla – locomotive of the sector.
According to a report by Researcher and Research LLC dated January 2022, Japan was in 4th place in the global automotive market in 2021 with 2.399 million passenger cars sold. The podium being monopolized by China (20.857 million), the United States (14.936 million) and Germany (2.622 million).
On the other hand, with only 43,917 EVs (electric vehicles + rechargeable hybrids) sold in 2021, Japan is far, very far behind China, the United States and Germany. Indeed, this is only 1.4% of the size of China’s market, 7.4% of that of the United States or 6.4% of that of Germany.
In addition to Subaru, Honda has planned to spend 5 billion yen over the next decade to manufacture zero-emission vehicles, while Toyota will invest $624 million to manufacture components for EVs in India.