2012 Legacy 2.5i Limited Awd 4dr Sedan on 2040-cars

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Subaru CEO expects record U.S. sales in 2020 despite market slowdown

TOKYO  - Subaru expects its U.S. vehicle sales to rise to a record high in 2020, as demand for its crossover models helps it buck the trend of slowing car sales in the Japanese automaker's biggest market. The company has been growing rapidly in the United States, the world's No. 2 auto market, roughly doubling the number of vehicles sold over the past six years, thanks in part to a ramp-up in local production capacity and a marketing strategy focused mainly on affluent and liberal-minded consumers. Japan's smallest automaker said that ongoing U.S. demand for its Forester and Outback models would likely boost overall sales in the country to 720,000 to 730,000 units next year, up by as much as 4.3% from the around 700,000 vehicles it expects to sell by the end of this year. "We expect the U.S. market to slow only slightly next year, so we're planning to see more growth in our sales. We think we can achieve this," CEO Tomomi Nakamura told reporters in Tokyo. He added that he saw room for the automaker to expand its share of the SUV market, which stands at around 7% at the moment, given that Subaru's SUV models outsell its Legacy and Impreza sedan models. "If competition in the U.S. SUV market continues, that segment will keep growing even as the overall market slows," he said. U.S. sales account for around 65% of Subaru's total global sales of around 1 million units. By the end of November, sales of the Forester this year had climbed 6.4% from a year ago, while sales of the Outback, its best-selling model in the country, were up 0.9%. However, the rapid growth in the country has coincided with a jump in global quality-related issues which has sapped profitability in the past year or so. (Reporting by Maki Shiraki; writing by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) Earnings/Financials Subaru Crossover SUV

Subaru mulling expanding Indiana plant for Forester, Impreza

Thanks to currency fluctuations and their impact on the bottom line, a growing number of Japanese automakers are starting to increase vehicle production in the US, and it appears Subaru could be the next to do so. According to Bloomberg, Subaru is looking into expanding production capacity at its Lafayette, Indiana assembly plant, which currently builds the Outback, Legacy and Tribeca as well as the Toyota Camry.
Subaru's Indiana plant currently has an annual maximum capacity of 310,000 units, but the automaker is expecting to far exceed that figure this year, with year-to-date sales of 299,788 units through November (not including Camry) - an increase of almost 30 percent over 2011. The report indicates that Subaru could expand the plant to add as many 50,000 additional units to the plant, likely in the form of either the Forester or Impreza.

We race a 2019 Subaru WRX STI up the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb

SHELSLEY WALSH, U.K. — Keep your foot down, I tell myself. Easier said than done in a 2019 Subaru WRX STI on the narrow and treacherous Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. Right away, thereÂ’s a very hairy fast left sweeper the STI takes in third gear, leading into another left that requires even more bravery: lifting just before entry without braking. The STIÂ’s all-wheel drive helps to pull us up and out of the corner, on the way to the fast straightaway up a steep hill. Abrupt berms, vegetation and walls line the right side, while the left has a poor excuse for a guardrail and a long drop past that. The road itself is extremely narrow – only big enough for one STI at a time – but smooth, picturesque. The prototypical meandering British B-road. An obligatory herd of sheep mill about in the distance partway up the hill, and a few cows watch the STI careen over the finish line.  This is the essence of the British hillclimb, an archaic form of motorsport that has survived to this day. In this pastoral setting, Shelsley Walsh happens to be the oldest continuously running (well, save a break for two world wars) hill climb event in the world, with the first official event being held August 12, 1905. It is, like many British hillclimb courses, almost comically short – just over half a mile, so thereÂ’s not much to memorize. Cars from the early 1900s (when it was still paved with stone) struggled to even make it to the top. Part of that struggle can be attributed to the rule that you must race with a full car of passengers, no less than the number of seats available. Besides that, cars just werenÂ’t very powerful back then, and Shelsley is a steep course. It peaks at a 16 percent grade. The course record belongs to a Gould GR55 NME open-wheel single-seater racecar at just 22.58 seconds. I managed to break into the mid 37s for my fastest run in the STI, but there was still a fair bit of time to be had in the course. Car preservation was much more important than chasing lap records — it was an hour drive back to our lodging that night, and the STI was our ride. There were two flavors of Subarus available to us for the hillclimb, and motoring around the British countryside after. One was the regular WRX STI, and the other was the shockingly expensive (and limited to 500 examples, long sold by now) Type RA. All the minor tweaks and upgrades made a tiny, tangible difference in my hill climb times.