Last week, Toyota announced that it was to offer an all-electric SUV for the European market. This week it was Subaru’s turn to promise the same thing. And considering the ties between the two companies, it's no surprise to learn that it will be based on a Toyota platform.
In fact, the collaboration between Toyota and Subaru on such a vehicle has been on track since June 2019. At that time, the two companies had announced that they were to jointly develop an electric vehicle roughly the size of an RAV4 or a Forester.
Subaru's model is thus expected to share many elements with the future Toyota EVs, but as of yet, no details have been forthcoming as to which ones. What is known is that the model will take advantage of Toyota's e-TNGA modular architecture, a platform designed specifically for electric vehicles. This structure is also modular, which means that it can accommodate different types of vehicles and mechanical configurations such as front-, rear- or all-wheel drive.
With Subaru, of course, the latter format is a virtual given. And if it's the same as the one seen recently with a camouflaged Lexus vehicle in the UK, it will be a two-motor approach (one at each end) that will be able to vary torque distribution between the motors and the front and rear wheels. Performance in that model is impressive, with a combined output of 402 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque.
This vehicle would be Subaru's first foray into the all-electric domain.
The Japanese automaker expects to have more news to announce over the course of 2021 regarding this vehicle, while Toyota says it will spill more beans about its EV in the coming months. In both cases, one thing we really want to know is this: do the future Subaru and Toyota EVs have designs on the North American market?
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