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All Electric Subaru

Joshua Paz

Arizona State University

OGL 260 – Module 5

June 15, 2023

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All Electric Subaru

In 2017 when I purchased my house, a huge priority was purchasing solar. One, for the

benefits of my location and the environmentally friendly direction I want to continue to move in,

and two for a financial benefit as future electric prices from the grid continue to rise as

development booms. I also chose to get a Tesla Power Wall which is a battery for the house

allowing the house to run on saved up electricity accumulated from the solar panels throughout

the day. Once this upgrade was made to my house, my next large future purchase is going to be

an electric vehicle.

I currently drive a Subaru, which I love, and I am looking forward to the future of electric

vehicles. One vehicle that was recently released by Subaru was their all electric Solterra. I drive

a Subaru WRX which has a punchy response and a no-nonsense feel, so naturally I want

something with a similar and responsive feel. Subaru has had such a strong following with their

sought-after adventurous lifestyle, but they may have jumped on the band wagon of electric

vehicles a bit late. “But the EV tech isn’t groundbreaking and may make it tough for the Solterra

to be a stand-alone primary car” (Duffy, 2022. para. 3).

Doing a deep dive into the why behind the late traction of Electric Vehicles within

Subaru, I found out that the one electric vehicle they do have has a heavy contribution from

Toyota. I attribute a huge pivot in Electric Vehicle production to Tesla. “Greater competitive

pressures will force the firm to make price concessions sooner and deeper than would otherwise

be the case” (Keown et al., 2019. p. 401). Now while the quality and safety that Subaru has been

known for are renowned, their debut into the Electric vehicle scene falls a bit short. Compared to

other Electric vehicles viewed, the Solterra has average to below average performance.
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According to Stafford (2022), the Solterra ranks at number 10 out of 10 top major car brands and

their Electric Vehicle options.

Subaru’s sales this year have continued a trend of year over year growth. When I was

looking at the total sales of the Solterra, the number 0.8% of Subaru’s sales didn’t really jump

out at me. The numbers that put Subaru’s sales into perspective were “45,790 vehicle sales in

February, which is two percent more than a year ago. So far this year, the company sold in the

United States over 90,000 cars (up 1.3 percent year-over-year)” (Kane, 2023. para. 1).

Interestingly enough, Toyota has a cousin vehicle that looks remarkably similar to the Solterra, it

would be interesting to see the sales of each brands Electric Vehicles side by side considering

they have slight differences.

Looking into future sales and possible risks on Subaru’s end, we see a possible reliance

on Toyota and their electric vehicle resources/manufacturing.

But Toyota is now making a hard pivot toward EVs themselves and expanding its hybrid

engine offerings. So, we can expect that impetus to trickle down to the Subaru lineup.

And Subaru will likely have to lean heavily on Toyota's manufacturing to get new EVs

on the road by mid-decade. (Duffy, 2023. para, 4)

Would a risk of Subaru’s be to shift gears and focus some of their manufacturing plants

towards future Electric Vehicle production? Seeing as how there is a heavy push towards the

reduction of vehicle emissions, I would love to see what future planning looks like within all of

the big brand car companies. Industry norms are tangible numbers of normal business trends, but

when you factor in being innovative and on the forefront of change how do you factor in industry

norm to your risk taking in order to stay current with the adaptive change that is taking place?

Looking at some of the top electric vehicles rated today, they are somewhat newer brands like
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Hyundai and Kia. Were these companies able to take bigger risk because of there position and

growth compared to the bigger brands like Ford, Nissan, and Volkswagon? “Although industry

groupings may actually contain firms whose basic business-risk exposures differ widely, the

practice is entrenched in American business behavior” (Keown et al., 2019. p. 425).

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References

Keown, A. J., Martin, J. D., & Petty, J. W. (2020). Foundations of finance: the logic and practice

of financial management. Pearson.

Duffy, T. (2022, April 25). The 2023 subaru solterra is a little bit toyota, a lot of subaru. Gear

Patrol. https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/g39796127/2023-subaru-solterra-review/

Duffy, T. (2023, May 11). Subaru just announced some wild EV Expansion Plans. Gear Patrol.

https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/a42884820/subaru-future-hybrid-electric-vehicles/

Kane, M. (2023, March 5). US: Subaru solterra sales amounted to 347 in february. InsideEVs.

https://insideevs.com/news/655546/us-subaru-solterra-sales-february2023/

Stafford, E. (2022, November 1). 2023 subaru solterra review, pricing, and specs. Car and

Driver. https://www.caranddriver.com/subaru/solterra