Subaru Maker to Change Name…to Subaru

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.—the company that makes Subaru cars—is changing its name to Subaru Corp., effective April 1, 2017.

The company’s board also is integrating its industrial products affiliate into the Subaru operations, effective this October. FHI notes the “Prominence 2020” strategy it announced two years ago includes as one of its primary goals “enhancing the Subaru brand.”

The name change will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the company’s founding as the Aircraft Research Laboratory. The business became Fuji Heavy Industries in 1953 and introduced its first Subaru-brand car, the 360 minicar, in 1958.

Subaru currently operates in more than 90 countries. The brand expects to sell a record 1.05 million vehicles in the current fiscal year that began April 1, thereby topping 1 million units in one year for the first time.