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Subaru profit climbs 48% on strong crossover sales in first quarter

TOKYO — Subaru reported a 48% increase in first-quarter operating profit on Monday as global sales grew, led by demand for the Ascent and Forester SUVs in the United States. The smallest of Japan's major automakers posted an operating income of 92.2 billion yen ($870 million) for April-June, versus 62.1 billion yen a year earlier and an average estimate of 65.6 billion yen from eight analysts polled by Refinitiv. Sales in the United States, by far Subaru's biggest market, rose 20%. It accounts for about 60% of Subaru's overall sales. The maker of Legacy sedans and Forester SUV crossovers maintained its forecast for operating income at 260 billion yen for the year to March 2020, up 45% from a year earlier. The previous fiscal year was marred by a string of recalls, production stoppages and inspection improprieties that cut the automaker's earnings in half. Subaru reiterated its annual forecast for global sales of 1.06 million vehicles. It also left unchanged its assumption that the yen will average 110 against the dollar over the course of the fiscal year, versus 111 last year. A stronger currency eats into profits because cars exported from Japan become more expensive and the value of earnings made overseas decreases.

Subaru Viziv Performance Concept | Next WRX ... with driver assist?

VIZIV is a portmanteau, an invented moniker that Subaru has affixed to a series of concept cars it has shown over the past few years. The name is intended to combine the notions of vision and innovation inherent in these fantastical vehicles, which, like all concepts, presage a future that never comes. How else to describe a five-passenger, scissor-doored, diesel, hybrid, electric, all-wheel-drive, shooting brake? These reveries and chimeras have, in successive iterations, become a bit more ... realistic, or at least closer to the realm of possible. Witness the Viziv-7 shown last year at the L.A. Auto Show, quite clearly a near-production-ready preview of the brand's forthcoming three-row, seven-passenger crossover — and a long-expected replacement for the ghastly, Hercule Poirot-faced Tribeca from some years back. So what are we to make of the latest Viziv, the Viziv Performance Concept, just unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show? A muscular, flare-fendered, four-door sport sedan, the VPC is, in Subaru's own words, intended to "deliver enjoyment and peace of mind" to its customers while evoking a design philosophy of "DYNAMIC x SOLID." [Subaru insists that it is not yelling, merely being emphatic.] The vehicle is also meant to integrate the latest in driver-assistance technology, built around Subaru's EyeSight distance cruise control and collision prevention system. It is surprisingly attractive, for a Subaru, which is to say, more than simply functional and unpretentious and rugged with a smattering of premium materials. It looks kind of French. "We utilize traditional Subaru shapes like the flared fenders and the hood scoop," says Mamoru Ishii, general manager of the design department's product planning division. "But we wanted to enhance the three-dimensional sculptural forms, to express more of the shadows." So it looks like a Subaru. But it also looks kind of ... fast. So is this thing the new WRX? Size and stature wise, that supposition would make sense. Especially since that model is now a wholly separate vehicle line spun off of the Impreza platform some years back and that the next generation is expected to reappear, in novel form and with its own identity, for the 2020 model year, making a conceptual appearance now timeline-proper. "It's a design study for a sport sedan, and WRX is one of them," says Ishii. "It's not so far from the next generation." Not so far away, but not so close.

Production Mazda Vision Coupe concept, GRMN Supra, new BRZ/86 coming

After writing about what's in store for the next-generation Subaru WRX, Japan's Best Car magazine is back with more spy work on what's ahead for the coming Mazda sedan, fighting-spec GRMN Toyota Supra, and next-generation Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86. All three are supposedly headed for previews at this year's Tokyo Motor Show before rolling out in 2021 and 2022. Mazda showed the Vision Coupe concept at the 2017 Tokyo show, then sneaked a mention of a rear- and all-wheel drive "Large Architecture" and two inline-six engines into a 2019 investor's report. Best Car says that concept's production version will house a 3.0-liter Skyactiv-X SPCCI inline-six with "M-Hybrid" 48-volt assistance. Output figures remain a mystery, but the mag says engineers are aiming for 345 horsepower. The real deal isn't slated for dealers until 2022, bringing what Mazda bills as a "BMW, Audi quality car at the price of Volkswagen." A further treat: Best Car says the Hiroshima automaker is laying out a two-door version on the same platform. Not even a month after 2020 Toyota Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada told us, "With a sports car, the promise is to offer more performance with each additional version," this report says the full-fat GRMN Supra will raise the stakes. Expected in the latter stages of 2021, the current 335-hp Supra will get an "output eventually close to 400 ps" (about 394 horsepower) from its BMW-source 3.0-liter straight-six. Along with that will come a lighter, stiffer body, and a sportier suspension tune to manage and make the most of the 60-horse increase. Best Car says the next-generation Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ will move to a new platform, without specifying whether it would be Toyota's TNGA platform suggested by a report in April — not that there are many other options. Neither the footprint nor the body dimensions are predicted to change, and transmissions will continue to include a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic. The new platform will hold a new engine, although it won't be the revelation many fans want. The magazine says the Subaru 2.0-liter FA20 will retire, making way for the Subaru 2.4-liter FA24. The FA24 is the same engine in the Subaru Ascent crossover, where it produces 260 hp and 277 lb-ft. There'll be no such fireworks for the sporty twins due in the first half of 2021, output reported to be "improved to 220 ps," or 217 hp — a 12-hp bump over the current figure.