Another Japanese automaker is now ‘re-evaluating’ EV plans
Subaru is the latest Japanese automaker to announce it will “re-evaluate” its EV plans. The company is rethinking its strategy with slowing sales and a potential multi-billion-dollar hit from Trump’s auto tariffs. The tariffs might not even be Subaru’s biggest threat.
Subaru and other Japanese automakers adjust EV plans
Within the past week, Japanese automakers, including Nissan, Honda, Toyota, and now Subaru, have announced major adjustments to their EV plans.
After releasing fiscal year financial results on Wednesday, Subaru’s CEO, Atsushi Osaki, said, “We are re-evaluating our plans, including the timing of investments.” Osaki added that the move is due to “today’s rapidly changing environment” and other external factors.
Like most of the industry, Subaru is bracing for a shift under the Trump administration, which could cost it billions. With around half of its vehicles sold, the US is key for the Japanese automaker.
Subaru said Trump’s new auto tariffs could cost the company up to $2.5 billion this year. The automaker is looking at ways to boost US production, but it won’t be easy.
Tomoaki Emori, Subaru’s senior managing executive director, said (via Automotive News), “Under the current circumstances, there is probably no way not to expand in the US. We must think about how to go about that.”
Emori added that the company still has the production capacity, “so we would like to mitigate the impact of tariffs while making use of it.”
Subaru joins a growing list of automakers in pulling its earnings forecast, citing “developments in US tariff policy” make it hard to forecast.
The company’s global sales fell 4.1% to 936,000 units over the past year. In North America, deliveries also fell 4.1% to 732,000 vehicles. Subaru anticipates global sales will continue dropping to around 900,000 this year, or another 4% drop. A part of the forecast is due to downtime at its Yajima plant as Subaru prepares to produce EV batteries.
Osaki said Subaru is “making various preparations for a BEV-dedicated plant,” but added it may add a mix of gas-powered vehicles.
Subaru unveiled its second EV for the US at last month’s NY Auto Show, the 2026 Trailseeker. The Outback-sized electric SUV will go on sale in 2026, joining the smaller Solterra in Subaru’s EV lineup in the US.
Since “It is becoming more difficult to decide how to incorporate electrification into our production mix,” Emori said, Subaru is “thinking about how to incorporate hybrids and plug-in hybrids.”
Electrek’s Take
Subaru and other Japanese automakers are quickly falling behind Chinese EV leaders like BYD in some of their most important sales regions, like Southeast Asia.
Delaying new EV models and other projects will only set them further behind in the long run. Nissan is in crisis mode after scrapping plans to build a new battery plant in Japan. The facility was expected to produce lower-cost LFP batteries, which could have helped Nissan compete on costs with BYD and others.
Last week, Toyota’s President, Koji Sato, said the company will be “reviewing” its goal of selling 1.5 million electric vehicles by 2026. And just yesterday, Honda announced plans to pause around $15 billion in planned EV investments in Canada.
BYD and other EV leaders are expanding overseas to drive growth after squeezing foreign brands, especially Japanese automakers, out of China.
Next year, BYD is launching its first kei car, or mini EV, that’s expected to be a big threat to Japanese automakers. A Suzuki dealer (via Nikkei) warned, “Young people do not have a negative view of BYD. It would be a huge threat if the company launches cheap models in Japan.”
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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