Published

Fuji Heavy and Toyota Partner on Hybrid SUV

Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp., its 16.5% owner, will develop a hybrid SUV for each brand by 2017, The Nikkei reports.
#hybrid

Share

Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp., its 16.5% owner, will develop a hybrid SUV for each brand by 2017, The Nikkei reports.

The joint project will combine Toyota's advanced hybrid technology and Subaru's horizontally opposed "boxer" engine to update a hybrid SUV that Fuji Heavy revealed in concept form four months ago.

FHI's realization that its hybrid system is less efficient than Toyota's led to the partnership, according to the Tokyo-based newspaper. It says the goal is to give each company a vehicle that will help it meet stricter U.S. fuel economy standards coming in 2016 and after.

The arrangement saves FHI development time and money, while strengthening Toyota's hybrid supplier business.

The hybrid vehicles for both companies will likely be manufactured at FHI's Yajima plant in Gunma Prefecture. The Nikkei cites unnamed sources who say the two automakers may eventually develop plug-in hybrids together.

The project marks the third between the companies since they formed a business partnership in 2005. In 2007, Subaru's plant in Indiana began building Toyota Camry sedans. In 2012, the companies collaborated on the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ sports cars.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Aluminum Sheet for EV Battery Enclosure

    As the number of electric vehicles (EVs) is about to increase almost exponentially, aluminum supplier Novelis is preparing to provide customers with protective solutions

  • Chevy Develops eCOPO Camaro: The Fast and the Electric

    The notion that electric vehicles were the sort of thing that well-meaning professors who wear tweed jackets with elbow patches drove in order to help save the environment was pretty much annihilated when Tesla added the Ludicrous+ mode to the Model S which propelled the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds.

  • Study: Nearly 60% of EV Sales in 2035 Will Be in China

    Global demand for electric vehicles will multiply by a factor of 15 to 11.3 million units by 2035, with the Chinese market generating 57% of the total, according to the Fuji-Keizai Group.

Gardner Business Media - Strategic Business Solutions