While other established brands are cutting prices and lengthening warranties to fend off increasing Chinese competition, Subaru Australia says its current approach is to stick to its roots.
The Japanese brand will imminently launch its new Forester SUV here, a new generation of its best-selling model.
It features Subaru’s new ‘strong hybrid’ technology that, while influenced to an extent by Toyota, is still claimed to embody its own longstanding safety and drivetrain characteristics.
Subaru Australia general manager Scott Lawrence said that maintaining the character and driving dynamics that Subaru vehicles are known for is “crucial” to ensuring his brand survives the onslaught of new brands and models.
“There’s no doubt the market’s competitive. I go back to, ‘what is Subaru here to do? Why do people go to a Subaru showroom and buy a Subaru?’ For me, it’s driving,” he told CarExpert.
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Forester
“When you ask a Subaru owner, ‘what is it about the Subaru?’, it’s safety, capability, and dynamics. So, my answer to the question about my worry about other brands – I’m worried about what we can do to keep driving the continued brand health of Subaru.
“It’s [the] really, really strong legacy, and good support from customers. The more that we focus on what makes Subaru Subaru, what makes Subaru so loved by customers, is crucial.”
Subaru’s new Forester, for example, does feature the latest in hybrid tech that appears similar to Toyota’s rival RAV4, but local engineers were quick to outline layout and operational characteristics unique to the Forester.
One is its symmetrical all-wheel drive system, a full-time setup developed and honed by Subaru seen in all its models in Australia bar the rear-wheel drive BRZ.
The Forester Hybrid is no different, and despite the inclusion of an electric motor, power is still delivered to the rear wheels via a central prop shaft and rear differential.
That’s in contrast to the RAV4, which does offer all-wheel drive but does so by having its electric motor power the rear wheels, while its petrol engine mans the front of the ship. The front and rear axles share no physical connection.
That’s also in contrast with rival hybrid SUVs from Chinese challenger brands, such as the GWM Haval H6 and upcoming MG HS Hybrid+, which lack all-wheel drive altogether.
The Forester also maintains Subaru’s 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder boxer engine and continuously variable transmission in both petrol-only and hybrid variants.
“So all-wheel drive, we’ve spoken a lot about the Forester strong hybrid with all-wheel drive, that for me, is the answer to a competitive market – staying true to what your customers want. That’s what we’re going to keep doing. That’s what I’m super focused on,” Mr Lawrence told CarExpert.
He also added that the development of the brand’s new strong hybrid system was intended to broaden the Forester’s appeal, saying “the focus on strong hybrid is to give customers choice”.
“There’s a deliberate strategy of having a petrol car, a strong hybrid car – which is the next generation, which is significantly more efficient, more powerful than the prior generation,” he said.
“We think the features and [as-yet unannounced] specs will really resonate, and for me, the biggest opportunity is in strong hybrid … we have good ambitions to grow Forester volume, and we see a lot of that coming from strong hybrid.”
Subaru sold 13,445 total examples of the Forester in 2024, with 1718 – or 12.8 per cent – being hybrids.
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Subaru Solterra
The mid-size SUV lineup was outsold by several rivals including the Nissan X-Trail, Kia Sportage, and Mazda CX-5, not to mention the segment-dominating RAV4.
However, it managed to fend off the cut-price GWM Haval H6 (12,416 including the GT coupe SUV), MG HS (4552) and BYD Sealion 6 (6198).
Pricing for the updated Forester is yet to be confirmed. For context, the all-wheel drive RAV4 starts at $45,260 before on-roads.
Where Chinese brands have been particularly active in Australia is in the electric vehicle (EV) space, with not only familiar brands like MG fielding EVs but also new brands – including Deepal and Zeekr – entering the market with only EVs.
Subaru has just one EV, the Solterra, on sale which it co-developed with Toyota. As for further such models, Mr Lawrence said there was plenty more to come for the Subaru brand.
“Solterra’s our first foray into the EV space. We have good ambitions for future EVs, Subaru Corporation will have eight EVs by 2028. How we see them, when we see them, we have plans for [that], but there will be expansions across the EV range,” he said.
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Crosstrek
In 2024, Subaru sold 386 Solterras, compared to 977 for Toyota’s twin-under-the-skin bZ4X.
The leading EV was still the Chinese-built, Solterra-rivalling Tesla Model Y with 21,253 sales.
Subaru’s commitment to rolling out eight EVs by 2028 hasn’t changed since 2023, and it’s expected that we’ll see the first of those models in the next year or so.
Former Subaru Australia managing director Blair Read, who is now the managing director of Subaru importer Inchcape, told CarExpert in 2023 that Subaru would eventually move to the EV space but only in a way that’s true to the brand.
“For sure you have to look at the market and what competitors are doing to understand where you sit, and all we can do is to control what we can control,” he said at the time.
“Whatever new product we decide to go with in Australia (and New Zealand), we have to make sure it remains absolutely true to the brand. You don’t blink and react just because something maybe different in market.”
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