We like think of Subaru as a... well, interesting car manufacturer, which stands out even among other Japanese brands. After all it's not too long ago, when, while most manufacturers were already thinking about low consumption, Subaru was still all about 4-wheel drive, petrol engine and turbos. About ten years ago they finally introduced diesel engine, which became quite a hit outside US. Now, they are slowly entering the game of electric cars.

However, Subaru is not the same brand as it was, times of rally cars are long gone and they are turning more to conventional buyers. And when they made a decision of building an electric car, they were already a bit late, so they decided to take a shortcut and instead of developing their own technology, Subaru turned for help to Toyota, a longtime partner and also 17-percent owner of Tokyo car manufacturer.

New car, which must arrive by the year 2021 for Subaru to comply stricter emission regulations and being such a small company with limited resources, doing it in such matter is the only solution. But to make the development even faster, Subaru also decided to join a Japanese venture called EV Common Architecture Spirit Co., which also includes Toyota, Mazda and Suzuki. Five engineers from Subaru will join the project and while their role is yet to be decided, their participation should streamline EV development.

Jure Šujica
Foto: Subaru