Subaru shifts focus to EVs with plans for eight electric models by 2028
Japanese automaker Subaru is shifting its focus and resources to produce electric vehicles. Subaru announced a new electrification plan Wednesday, calling for eight EV models by 2028 and a 50% BEV sales share by the end of the decade.
Subaru updates EV strategy
A day after a report claimed Toyota would begin building a new three-row Subaru electric SUV at its manufacturing facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, in 2025, Subaru is now stepping up to the plate.
Subaru’s president and CEO, Atsushi Osaki, announced the new electrification plans Wednesday after releasing its quarterly results.
Osaki drastically adjusted the automaker’s strategy, calling for a 50% BEV share, or 600,000 unit sales in 2030. In the US, its largest market (roughly 70% of sales), Subaru is now aiming to sell 400,000 EVs in 2028.
This is a big difference compared to Subaru’s previous plans of 40% EV and hybrid share (combined). Rather than 60% ICE sales, Subaru now aims for a 50/50 BEV to HEV mix.
Subaru plans to begin in-house EV production in 2025, adding dedicated EV production lines around 2027. In the US, Subaru will begin EV production around 2027.
The growth will be supported by a 1.5 trillion yen ($10.4 billion) investment by around 2030, including 250 billion yen previously announced for domestic production reorganization.
Subaru plans to introduce four electric SUVs by the end of 2026 (including the Solterra) and another four new EV models by the end of 2028, for a total of eight.
The automaker’s sole EV, the Subaru Solterra, is built by Toyota (who owns 20% of Subaru) and rides on its e-TNGA platform, the same one used for the bZ4X electric SUV.
Toyota assembles both electric vehicles at its Motomachi assembly plant in Japan. Subaru has sold 3,730 Solterra EVs in the US this year through July, roughly 1% of total sales.
Earlier this week, Subaru and Panasonic announced they had begun talks to supply next-gen cylindrical lithium-ion batteries from the latter half of the 2020s. The plans include a dedicated EV plant in Gunma, Japan.
Electrek’s Take
The move comes after Toyota and other Japanese automakers recently announced similar plans to boost competitiveness as the industry shifts to EVs.
Toyota revealed a series of new innovations to boost competitiveness in the EV era, including a dedicated platform, next-gen batteries that will increase range and drive down costs, design enhancements, and manufacturing improvements to optimize efficiency.
The Japanese government is increasing support for battery tech with 330 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in subsidies to avoid falling further behind. Toyota is expected to receive nearly 120 billion ($847 million) to fuel its EV battery tech strategy.
With Toyota building dedicated EV assembly and battery manufacturing capacity, Subaru will get a foot in the door. But, the next few years will be critical for Subaru to maintain its position in its biggest, most profitable market.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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