Originally Posted By: bluesubie
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Subaru is already implementing their own global platform. So, unless they combine efforts with Toyota for the overall design of the hybrid (leaning heavily on Toyota), I don't see them utilizing Toyota's platform. Instead, they'll have designed in hybridization into the new Subaru Global Platform.
I honestly can't say how they'll implement it, but I have a sinking feeling (with no proof to back it up) that it will be Subaru-only project and it will be almost as half-arsed as the Crosstrek hybrid. I probably am (and really do hope to be proven) wrong on this, but we'll see.
From the C&D article:
Quote:
Earlier this year, Subaru chief technical officer Takeshi Tachimori said that the automaker has “used Toyota’s technologies as much as possible” for the plug-in hybrid. From that, we’ll extrapolate that it will almost certainly borrow off-the-shelf technology from the Toyota Prius Prime. And it would be out of character for Subaru not to combine that with a version of Toyota’s E-Four all-wheel-drive system—with a third electric motor for the rear wheels—that’s offered on the Prius in Japan.
An earlier article on the PHEV:
http://autoweek.com/article/green-cars/electrify-subaru-leans-its-friends
I’ve read all that, thanks blue!
.
I guess I should have qualified it all by saying that I’m preparing myself to be majorly disappointed (like I do with the STI every year!
) while deep down I’m secretly optimistic. Reality will likely be somewhere in between - to be trite: I expect something evolutionary (between the Crosstrek hybrid and the Prius Prime, but closer to the former), not revolutionary (35 mpg, combined/55+ empg, Forester-sized vehicle with uncompromised AWD.)