Toyota To Produce Small Subarus. And A FT-86baru?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Toyota will supply small Subarus to Fuji Heavy, so that Fuji Heavy and Subaru can focus on midsize cars. According to information developed by The Nikkei [sub], “Toyota and Fuji Heavy intend to release a jointly developed sports car under their respective brands as early as the end of 2011.” If the Nikkei has its stuff together, then we might finally see the often delayed FT-86 next year. As a Toyota and a Subaru.

The Nikkei expects that the deal begins with Toyota making their Ractis subcompact as a Subaru. It is due for a refresh, and Subaru-specific mods can be incorporated when that happens. The aforementioned “jointly developed sports car” is expected to – finally – ship “under their respective brands as early as the end of 2011.” According to the article, Toyota will also provide technologies for Subaru hybrids.

According to the Nikkei, this would be the first time that Toyota makes finished cars for another Japanese automaker. It’s not that the two are perfect strangers. Toyota has a 16.5 percent stake in Fuji Heavy.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Patrickj Patrickj on Jun 25, 2010

    Subaru needs to increase its fuel mileage more drastically and more quickly than it can on its own.

  • Power6 Power6 on Jun 25, 2010

    Sounds like it is being reported as news that the FT-86Whatever will be a Subaru too. Maybe I've been under a rock, but it has been this way all along, it is a joint develpoment. Though it is shaping up to be Camaro-scale lead time with all of the delays.

    • Bertel Schmitt Bertel Schmitt on Jun 25, 2010

      The news is that it's finally coming by the end of 2011. The joint development is old hat.

  • Ellomdian Ellomdian on Jun 25, 2010

    If it happens, it could allow 2 versions of the model - the one Toyota hopes to sell to the old people, and one subaru could target at a much younger demographic. /crosses fingers for a real '86 successor...

  • L'avventura L'avventura on Jun 25, 2010

    I think the "jointly-develop" is the key word here, because in Japan Toyota does supply Subaru with a bunch of cars. For instance: Subaru Pleo = Daihatsu Mira Subaru Justy= Daihatsu Sirion/Daihatsu Boon/Toyota Paso Subaru Dexs Wagon = Daihtasu Atrai Subaru Dexs = Toyota bB The problem hitherto has been that Toyota-branded Subarus have lost that distinct "Subaru-ness", which has been the reason that these Subarus have been exclusive to the Japanese market. I would hope that Subaru would use boxer engines and AWD in their cars and rely on Toyota for platforms primarily. More importantly, I would hope they would extend this collaboration to Western markets where they need to fill gaps in their lineup; a Subaru-branded Tacoma/4Runner with a turbo-flat-4 or flat-6 would be great or even a AWD flat-4 Mini rival. Either way, the Ractis being discussed by Nikkei is developed on the Yaris/Vitz platform. And the new Yaris/Vitz is expected to make its debut around December of 2010- which is rumored to be heavily based on the iQ platform. So we should expect to see a Yaris-based Subaru in the near future. The question is will Toyota supply un-Subaru-like engines for these 'small Subarus' like they have been until now (such as inline-3s or inline-4s) or will Subaru use their 1.5L flat-4 EL engines?

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