Those long-promised thrift-minded hybrid Subarus are finally here …just not in strength.

CONFIRMATION that the first Subaru cars with a hybrid drivetrain have finally arrived has come with caveat of limited supply.

The national allocation of e-Boxer versions of the XV small crossover and Forester medium sports utility editions is a trickle; just 10-20 units a month.

 Also confirmed is pricing, with the XV Sport at $42,490 and Forester Sport and Premium respectively at $47,490 and $54,990 – all therefore $5000 more expensive than respective existing petrol versions in equivalent specification and trim.

As per non-hybrid editions, the new models are all-wheel-drive and have a continuously variable automatic transmission. 

The limited availability excludes demonstrators, with dealerships from June 1. IT’s highly probable those cars might be sought by customers, as first stock for general sale won’t come until September at the earliest.

Subaru Japan’s inability to supply the models to this market until now has been a massive issue for the national distributor.

The addition of an electric motor and lithium-ion battery to abet the car’s classic Subaru 2.0-litre petrol engine was seen by Subaru New Zealand as the perfect tool to ease lingering consumer perception that the marque’s trademark horizontally-opposed engines fall short as economy or emissions champs.

 Subaru NZ began spruiking the technology three years ago and initially thought it would have it in early 2019. It then reset that timeframe, with thought NZ might piggyback on the introduction to Australia, which occurred last December.

The reduced count might not be a factory inability to provision more.

It could also be that, with the car market expected to be down by around 40 percent year-on-year as result of the initial and ongoing impact of the coronavirus, Subaru NZ has chosen to keep the national allocation under closer control.

Certainly, it has broken from convention in deciding that it will take direct control of e-Boxer allocation. General inquiries and sales arrangements are directed through a bespoke website, www.subaru.co.nz/eboxer, and customer-bound cars will apparently allocate from its Auckland head office.

Even so, it definitely wants to stir up interest. It has also come up with a finance deal that secures the models for $99 per week (over an unspecified period) through Subaru’s Accelerator Programme via Heartland Bank. Additional information will be available about this offer and will be emailed to those that have registered to find out more on June 1. 

The models use the same e-Boxer powertrain, a 2.0-litre horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine developing 110kW at 6000rpm and 196Nm at 4000rpm (5kW shy of its petrol counterpart in the XV) mated to a synchronous electric motor good for 12kW/66Nm.

Subaru has cited that the XV Hybrid has potential to deliver a 14 percent improvement in fuel efficiency over the equivalent petrol model on the urban cycle and a seven percent improvement on the combined cycle. The Forester Hybrid will offer improvements of 19 and nine percent respectively compared to 2.5-litre petrol variants. 

The hybrid tech comes from Toyota, which has shareholding in Subaru and is a technology partner in Fuji’s electric drive programme that positions the hybrids as a stepping stone to plug-in electric fare.

Only with PHEV – or full electric – can Subaru achieve status as an electric car maker. The hybrids don’t qualify for that status. As in Toyota hybrids, the aim isn’t about allow any particular electric-only urge.

While three driving modes are available - Motor Assist EV, Motor Assist electric plus petrol engine and petrol engine only – and the system has capability of swapping between configurations depending on driving conditions, it will only enable pure electric at under 40kmh and range is limited to several kilometres. 

Subaru NZ managing director Wallis Dumper has enforced that the derivatives have the same DNA as all the NZ-new Subarus launched before them - with no compromise in their performance or their capability.

“Forester and XV have both been huge successes in our range and we know there is pent-up demand for hybrid variants among our Subaru owners, who are some of the most loyal customers in the industry.

“We are not letting COVID-19 get in the way of letting them access these new models - we just need to do things differently.”

“We believe the e-Boxer Hybrids are worth the wait as they are perfect for New Zealand. Sure, global demand and production constraints have tested our patience, however it’s more relevant than ever to have a hybrid in our model line-up.”

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