Subaru also is testing an electric car, the R1-e
Chuck Squatriglia -
Wired - May 21, 2009
I hope these get to the US. -- Ed.
Fuji Heavy Industries, which owns Subaru, plans to offer a hybrid based on the technology that underpins the Toyota Prius.
The two automakers have long had an alliance to share vehicle development, production and supplies. Ikuo Mori, president and CEO of Fuji Heavy, says his company will draw on that partnership to offer a gas-electric vehicle.
“We will take advantage of our alliance with Toyota,” he told reporters in Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal. Toyota owns a 16 percent stake in Subaru, but so far the partnership hasn’t borne much fruit when it comes to gas-electric. One industry insider told us Toyota, which holds 80 percent of the hybrid market, has been reluctant to share the technology.
The announcement follows the Obama Administration’s plan to significantly tighten fuel economy and emissions regulations. The rules, brokered with help from the auto industry, increase the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 35.5 mpg within seven years and cut tailpipe emissions by almost 40 percent.
Mori said Subaru also is developing a new diesel engine to meet those emissions rules and will offer it in 2011 or 2012. He did not say which models might get the new drivelines.
Subaru also is testing an electric car, the R1-e (pictured) with an eye toward a possible U.S. release.
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