Subaru Evoltis on-sale “in a couple of years”
Subaru’s first battery electric vehicle – said to be named Evoltis – is due within “a couple of years”.
That’s the time estimate from a bloke who should know – Subaru of America president and CEO Tom Doll.
His comments regarding Subaru’s electric car plans are the latest in a steady dripfeed of information about the Evoltis EV and its close development links with Toyota.
Earlier this month, images filed by Toyota with the China patent office reveal two electrified SUVs, one of which bears a close resemblance to an unnamed concept vehicle shown by Subaru at a technical briefing in Tokyo in January.
Since that briefing the Evoltis name has emerged via the Japanese automotive scoop website Spyder 7, which it reported had been trademarked by Subaru in the USA for a medium-sized electrified SUV.
According to Spyder7, the Subaru Evoltis will be a more aggressive version of the concept car and will feature a larger hexagon grille and bold LED headlights.
Spyder7 says the Evoltis will make its world debut as soon as October 2021, while other reports have put it out as far as 2025. A leaked Subaru presentation puts start of production in the northern hemisphere Spring – March to May – of 2022
Doll’s suggested timeframe backd that 2022 timing right up in a recent interview with the US program Autoline This Week.
He said the EV would launch “in a couple of years” into the USA.
Subaru has previously stated the uptake of EVs in the USA – a market which is critical to its profitability – will be among the most important guides for the timing of its roll-out of EVs.
“We are very hopeful the adoption of that (EV) is good and strong,” Doll added. “This is a just going to be another challenge for us to try and create a market and figure out where the price-points need to be and what the payment levels need to be to make sure we get the adoption.
“One of the reasons why we have been late to the party with electric vehicles is we have to make sure we can sell them in the volumes they need to be sold at. We don’t have the economies of scale some of our larger competitors have.
“We are one or two per cent worldwide market share.”
It is understood Toyota and Subaru – which have previously worked together on the 86/BRZ sports cars – are just as closely engaged on EVs and have been co-operating on this project since 2019.
They are expected to share Toyota’s e-TNGA EV architecture, which is a skateboard design with battery packs – sourced from a Toyota joint-venture with Chinese EV specialist BYD – mounted in the floor.
The Toyota and Subaru EVs would also share electric motors and suspensions and differentiate via body styles and interiors.
Media reports have speculated on battery pack sizes ranging from 50kWh to 110kWh, with the latter potentially the one employed by the 2019 Lexus LF-30 concept that’s claimed to be good for 500km.
Toyota has previously announced a plan to bring six battery EVs to market between 2020 and 2025 starting in China. Recently, it also confirmed plans to show off new solid state battery technology had been delayed by the coronavirus.
In January, when Subaru showed its unnamed concept, it outlined a plan to make at least 40 per cent of its global sales electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles by 2030.
Within a few years of that it plans to apply electrification technologies to all Subaru vehicles sold worldwide.
Subaru recently began dabbling in electrification in Australia, selling petrol-electric mild hybrid versions of the Forester and XV.
