Subaru will begin offering hybridized powertrains from corporate partner Toyota by mid-decade and will build battery-electric vehicles itself in a new factory in Japan in the later half of the decade. But it will rely on its current lineup of combustion-powered vehicles and one Toyota-built EV in the U.S. until then.
The launch of the 2023 Subaru Solterra electric compact crossover was put on ice this year by a stop-sale and recall issued by Toyota, which also impacted the Solterra's sibling vehicle, the Toyota bZ4X. Subaru had plans to sell 6,000 Solterras in the U.S. in 2022, with capacity expected to increase in 2023. But the recall, involving wheels that could potentially detach, delayed Solterra deliveries for the time being and froze Subaru's EV ambitions before they ever got a chance to get going.
Subaru will begin making its own EVs in mixed production with internal combustion vehicles at its Yajima plant in Japan in the mid-2020s. From about 2027, it will build a dedicated EV factory on the site of its Oizumi plant, which now makes engines and transmissions.
