Automotive News Canada - June 2018 - 9

* JUNE 2018

With access to Toyota tech, Subaru is bigger than it seems
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 6

growth streak would be in its
13th year, not its seventh.
No discussion of Subaru
Canada can ignore that Subaru,
globally, is a minnow in an
industry where size is everything. Subaru Corp. built 1.05
million vehicles in its fiscal
year ended March 2018.
But Lalka said that little Subaru can still be viable
if it stays focused: "Globally,
Subaru has sold more than a
million vehicles for two years
running. That was a critical
point that gave us enough volume to gain efficiencies from
[economies of] scale.

midsize utilities. The Ascent
will be Subaru's first entry in
that key segment since the little-loved 2006-'14 B9 Tribeca.
That leaves only the midsize Legacy sedan and its
Outback sibling to adopt the
SGP underpinnings.
Lalka says Subaru sales
in Canada are about equally divided between leasing,
financing and cash purchase.
The brand is perennially a
star performer in residual-value rankings, perhaps in part
because, "We don't want to sell
just the deal." And there's no
glut of off-lease cars to depress

values, "because customers
keep them, or sell them to family members."
While he thinks the
Canadian arm could potentially match or beat Subaru's 3.8
per cent U.S. market share one
day, for now SCI is aiming for
three per cent. Lalka stressed
the importance of sustainable growth that doesn't rely
on incentives, and of ensuring a healthy, profitable dealer network. The count currently stands at 94. "We might
get close to 100, but that's really it. And that would be open
points." - ANC

The redesigned 2019 Forester will ride on the Subaru Global
Platform, a common architecture that will underpin most
- if not all - Subaru models. P H O T O : S U B A R U

If anything, we don't have
enough cars. Right now,
the Crosstrek is incredible.
People are waiting
three months.
CARMEN VIGLIATORE
Scarborough Subaru

"The other thing is, we don't
try to be everything to everybody. Rather, we focus on just a
couple of things so we can concentrate our resources and be
really good at that. Our lineup
includes vehicles in all the key
segments, but we don't try to
provide something in every single segment."

GERMAN ENGINEERING WHERE
YOU NEED IT THE MOST

'INCREDIBLE' PROGRESS
Long-time dealer Carmen
Vigliatore of Scarborough
Subaru in Scarborough, Ont.,
has never been happier with
Subaru - despite tight supply
of some models: "The last five
years, the progress has been
incredible - the quality, the
marketing.
"If anything, we don't have
enough cars. Right now, the
Crosstrek is incredible. People
are waiting three months."
The only hole he sees in the
lineup is electrified cars. "I
wish they would work on that
because that's the direction the
world is going."
That will come. Toyota owns
a 16.5-per cent share in Subaru
Motors (the two companies
co-developed the Subaru BRZ
and Toyota 86 sports cars), and
Toyota will assist Subaru in
electrifying its lineup.
"I think they can survive
as an independent for a long
time due to their ability to
purchase expensive-to-develop technologies from Toyota,"
said Karwel. "By that I mean
EV and advanced autonomous
technologies, emission tech,
safety tech."
Apart from the sports cars,
all Subarus will achieve economies of scale by riding on a
common architecture, called
Subaru Global Platform
(SGP). The Impreza compact
sedan and hatchback (and its
Crosstrek spin-off) already
ride on the SGP, as will the
redesigned 2019 Forester compact and the upcoming Ascent

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - June 2018