Report: Lingering Subaru Trademark Will Find a Home on Jointly Developed EV

Being relatively small for a mainstream automaker and with limited resources to keep up with evolving industry trends, Subaru latched onto auto giant Toyota for help in the electric vehicle realm. The only electrified model in Subaru’s lineup, the Crosstrek Hybrid, is a marriage of Subaru body to Toyota technology.

Far bigger things loom on the horizon for the two; namely, a pair of jointly developed electric crossovers — one of which, apparently, has a name.

That name would be Evoltis. It’s not a new entry to the automaker’s U.S. trademark roster, either. Far from it. Subaru applied for the trademark back in March of 2018, but the name didn’t find its way onto any new product. Certainly not to the returning Crosstrek Hybrid, and not to any gee-whiz show car, either.

Japanese outlet claims the Evoltis name will appear on the brand’s new long-legged electric crossover, with a public debut potentially slated for next year’s Tokyo Motor Show (October 2021). That date seems a tad early, given that the crossover would ride atop a joint EV platform whose pending development was only announced a matter of months ago. The strengthened Toyota-Subaru pair-up makes the smaller automaker’s new electrification plan possible, a plan that calls for 40 percent of the brand’s sales to come from EVs or hybrids by the end of the decade.

In that plan, the jointly developed EV crossover is said to reach customers by the middle of the decade. We’ll see how quickly the pair actually turn out this new product. Toyota’s version will obviously carry a different name — and perhaps some styling alterations to distance itself from its Subaru sibling, though the two automakers’ BRZ/86 project suggest the differences could be very minor.

Earlier this year, a Subaru concept vehicle unveiled concurrently with the brand’s electrification plan made its way to the internet, potentially offering a peek at what this future crossover might look like.

[Image: Subaru]