Crosstrek becomes new workhorse for Subaru

The Subaru Crosstrek may have begun life humbly as a lifted Impreza hatchback six years ago, but it has turned into a sales workhorse for Subaru of America in its second generation.

Subaru initially had modest U.S. sales targets of 2,500 to 3,500 sales a month for the nameplate, originally known as the XV Crosstrek.

But as the crossover entered the U.S. market, slotted below Subaru’s Forester and Outback, its sales boomed.

The redesigned 2018 model, now on the Subaru Global Platform, has cleared the five-figure sales mark in eight of the last nine months, with March setting a monthly U.S. sales record for the model: 13,400 units sold.

The company says it will reveal a plug-in hybrid version of the Crosstrek this year, relying heavily on Toyota Motor Corp.’s hybrid technology.

The platform that underpins the Crosstrek was engineered to accommodate gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric drivetrains.

Through April of this year, Subaru has sold 45,728 Crosstreks in the U.S., up 67 percent from the year-earlier period.

“The first-generation Crosstrek kind of beat the numbers we were shooting for. It went from 6,000 sales a month to 7,000 to 8,000 a month,” said Jeff Walters, Subaru of America’s senior vice president of sales, in a phone interview.

“When we did this launch, we asked ‘Can we take it from 8,000 a month up to 10,000 a month?’ We felt pretty good about the product and that it would be able to deliver.”

The Crosstrek is now the best-selling model in the bustling subcompact crossover segment through the first four months of 2018, topping the likes of the Buick Encore, Jeep Renegade, Chevrolet Trax and Honda HR-V.

Crosstrek sales account for 19 percent of the subcompact crossover segment through April, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

Increased sales have equated to brisk turnovers on retailer lots. Walters noted that Subaru has been carrying about 25 to 30 days’ supply of Crosstreks on the ground in the U.S. The Crosstrek is manufactured at Subaru’s plant in Gunma, Japan.

“In terms of getting our share of production, we’re pretty much taking everything they offer up to us,” Walters said of the factory.

Subaru retailers are bullish on the vehicle, he said. Its incentives remain low and its average transaction price is high for the segment. That is a critical issue for Subaru at the moment as it deals with surging incentives in the U.S. market, along with most of its competitors.

“It’s helped carry and sustain our volume here over the last several months,” said Walters.

The Crosstrek is helping Subaru of America offset another market challenge, which is also common across the industry — falling sedan sales. Subaru’s bread-and-butter nameplates, the Legacy and Impreza four-door, have both declined this year.

Since the redesign’s launch, the Crosstrek has sold especially well in Florida, where sales have doubled compared with the first four months of last year, Walters said.

The Crosstrek has navigated its way to being the third-best-selling model in Subaru’s U.S. portfolio, behind only the Forester and Outback.

The gap between sales of the Forester, currently at the end of its product cycle, and the Crosstrek has closed significantly. Last September, the volume gap between the two models was just 771 sales.

Said Walters: “Having Crosstrek solidly in our No. 3 spot and being able to do over 10,000 units per month, we expect that to continue.”