SUBARU importer Inchcape is banking on a “rationalised”, multi-powertrain product line-up to counter its declining sales figures in Australia, according to Inchcape Australasia managing director Blair Read.
This year is not shaping up to be much better for the Japanese brand, with 11,915 deliveries to the end of May, a decrease of 22.1 per cent compared with the same period last year.
To combat this sales decline, Mr Read said Subaru’s range has been “rationalised” in recent years as it has prepared to adopt multiple powertrains across its line-up.
“What you are now seeing is the years of work that have gone into preparing the Subaru range across multiple powertrains for the next phase of the brand’s performance,” said Mr Read.
For the last three years, the Forester, Outback and Crosstrek have dominated Subaru’s sales. In 2025, Subaru sold 15,179 Foresters, 10,842 Crosstreks, and 8384 Outbacks.
Excluding the Forester and Crosstrek, the Outback accounted for more sales than the rest of Subaru’ product range combined, as sales of the BRZ, Impreza, Solterra, and the WRX amounted to 4600 deliveries.
Mr Read described Subaru’s focus on these three models as a “performance challenge” but pointed to its new BEV and hybrid models as a deliberate bid to refresh its range.
“But one of the performance challenges over time for the brand, it’s been focused on a number of core models: Forester, Outback, Crosstrek as the core of the range.
“(Recently), you’ve seen huge expansion in the range with strong hybrid – more to come on that – now three EV models as opposed to two years ago where there were zero EV models, expansion across the range and in the number of nameplates.”
“So that has been a deliberate strategy over the last four to five years to refresh the model range for where customer trends and product trends are going in the industry here.”
Just four years ago, 6752 BEVs were sold in Australia during the first quarter. In May of this year alone, one in five new vehicles sold in Australia was a BEV.
Subaru’s current hybrid line-up comprises the Forester and Crosstrek small SUV, although the latter is more of a mild hybrid compared with the ‘strong hybrid’ Forester.