Subaru Accelerates Plan to Raise U.S. Capacity

Subaru owner Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. says it will hike annual capacity at its factory in Lafayette, Ind., to 394,000 units by the end of 2016 from about 310,000 currently.

The company previously planned to increase capacity at Lafayette to 328,000 vehicles next year and to 400,000 units by early 2021.

But FHI President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga tells reporters booming sales in the U.S. should enable Subaru to hit an annual volume of 600,000 units by early 2016, five years sooner than the company forecast a year ago. The U.S. contributes more than 60% of global Subaru sales.

The Lafayette plant current makes the Subaru Legacy and Impreza sedans and Outback wagon. It also has capacity to assemble as many as 100,000 Toyota Corolla sedans.

Subaru will reclaim the Corolla capacity next year when Toyota, which owns 17% of FHI, relocates that output to its own auto plant in Georgetown, Ky., in the second half of 2016.