It’s the era of the hybrid, with everything from the Ford F-150 to the Kia Sportage offering electrified power without the need to plug in as a way to boost fuel economy. Now that the tech is cheap, it just makes sense, and the time feels right for automakers currently out of the hybrid game in America to try again. Case in point: A brand new Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid will soon go on sale in Japan, and while it isn’t yet confirmed for America, it has some precedent.
Subaru has actually offered several electrified Crosstrek variants in the past, but each previous one had its own quirks that may have limited mass appeal. This latest electrified Crosstrek, on the other hand, seems like it could tick the right boxes.
The first-generation Crosstrek Hybrid used a minuscule 0.6-kWh battery pack and an electric motor integrated into a conventional CVT. The result? A not entirely impressive 30 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, and 31 mpg combined using the EPA testing procedures of the time. Considering a regular first-generation Crosstrek with the CVT was rated at 26 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, and 29 mpg combined, an increase of four city MPG is an improvement, but definitely isn’t world-changing on its own.
Sold in America for model years 2014 through 2016, the original Crosstrek Hybrid is a rare sight in the wild, but you can tell it apart from the regular Crosstrek thanks to clear-lens taillights. Get lucky, and you might even be able to spot one in the launch color of Plasma Green Pearl. Very nice.
Fast forward to 2018, and not only was a brand new generation of Crosstrek in showrooms, Subaru needed a compliance car for North American electrification initiatives, specifically in states that follow California’s emissions standards. The solution? A plug-in hybrid called, somewhat confusingly, the Crosstrek Hybrid. It didn’t quite work like the previous Crosstrek Hybrid. Instead of cramming an electric motor inside a regular CVT, Subaru developed a substantially more conventional hybrid transmission with two motor/generator units, then fed it with both a detuned two-liter flat-four engine and an 8.8 kWh battery pack. The result? If you plugged this PHEV in, it could theoretically travel 17 miles before the gasoline motor kicked in. Not brilliant range, but not nothing either.
However, between only being sold in CARB states and carrying an MSRP of nearly $36,000, the second-generation Crosstrek Hybrid also didn’t move in huge numbers. However, maybe the third time would be the charm, because although the incoming third-generation Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid isn’t confirmed for America just yet, it seems like it might be just the ticket.
Instead of a two-liter flat-four engine, the new Crosstrek Hybrid features a more powerful 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine making 160 horsepower and 154 lb.-ft. of torque on its own. Then Subaru added a planetary CVT with two motor/generator units, with the traction motor pumping out 118 horsepower on its own. That electric motor gets fed by a 1.1 kWh battery pack, and the result is a conventional hybrid with a bit of a twist. While some automakers like Toyota like to put an electric motor on the rear axle to create an all-wheel-drive hybrid, the new Crosstrek Hybrid uses a conventional coupling in its transaxle so it has a conventional all-wheel-drive system — part of Subaru’s DNA.
As for efficiency, Subaru claims the new Crosstrek Hybrid can travel more than 621 miles on a single tank of gas on the admittedly lenient WLTP cycle. Oh, and that 16.6-gallon tank comes courtesy of some repackaging, taking advantage of the low profile of a flat-four engine to put the high-voltage controller under the hood.
Add it all up, and the third-generation Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid finally looks like the right package for America. People love their Subarus (except Matt), people love their hybrids, so it would only take the right product to make people love Subaru hybrids. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, shall we?
(Photo credits: Subaru)
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Hope they have corrected the wheel bearing issues that have plagued Subarus for years……
Hybrid blah blah
What caught my attention is that acid-green color-matched license plate. C’mon, you guys are the masters of automotive trivia, obscurata, and pedantry (and I mean that in the BEST way).
How about an exposé on how manufacturers display license plates in their ads? An alternative universe where they are not state-mandated metallic scabs but intentionally placed embellishments. And do they contain coded messages? I need to know!
A lot of modern cars have an unfinished hole behind the plate opening so they tend to cover that up with a plate in all the marketing photos.
You know what would be better than a Crosstrek Hybrid?
An Impreza Hybrid.
Because nobody needs a jacked up hybrid with cladding and oversized wheels that makes a car get the same mileage as the non-hybrid without that junk.
Plenty of people need increased ground clearance
That’s funny – Because most Crosstreks never get farther off road than a gravel driveway…
…which my Mercedes convertible manages to traverse just fine.
It’s weird to levy this against Crosstreks when half of America buys pickup trucks for soccer duty.
And for the record, I’ve taken my Crosstrek down all sorts of weird fire roads. It’s a champ.
That jumped out to me too, the Crosstrek is probably the most no-nonsense about what it is compared to most competitors, and the Impreza has never been a pillar of fuel efficiency to begin with.
On paper, the Impreza gets exacty the same fuel economy as the Crosstrek. It’s almost unbelievable.
I don’t know what the urban cycle fuel economy testing looks like, but my Crosstrek rarely gets better than 20mpg in the city which is a far cry from the claimed 26mpg city.
And now I don’t feel so bad about my (now sold) 1st gen Crosstrek Hybrid only getting 24mpg in the city.
What I’d give for 24mpg around town! Hybrids really tend to shine in stop and go traffic.
Crosstrek vs Impreza sales numbers. Its no contest which they would put the hybrid in.
https://media.subaru.com/newsrelease.do?id=2212&mid=1
“Cars are so expensive these days!”
*Buys the $2500 more expensive version of the exact same car because it’s jacked up*
To be fair, the people saying that aren’t buying Subaru’s. They’re buying 4Runners and full size pickup trucks for family use.
Crosstreks and Imprezas are rated for the same mileage by the EPA.
I found the Crosstrek ( my wife as an Impreza) has more of what I need. Room to fill stuff, go to the dump, vacation stuff etc. The only downer is outside the WRX is there is no manual option.
Were you that person at the next desk over in the Subaru dealer who was upgrading from an Impreza to a Crosstrek because you “needed a vehicle with more room”?
(Actual conversation that I heard and no one bothered to correct the guy)
Umm no. I usually have a multipurpose vehicle and this one fit the bill. I actually use the space for shopping trips, dump runs, vacations.
The wagon style just offers more options vs a trunk.
Then again when I had a pickup I would haul stuff. I am strange that way. 🙂
Ah, so your wife has one of the 12 Impreza sedans they sold. 😉
Yep. We picked it because it was inexpensive and a 5 spd.
What if they offered an Impreza hatchback with the same interior/cargo room as your Crosstrek? Wouldn’t that be nice?
7 inches of ground clearance is my minimum unless I’m getting over 40MPG, and even then I still wish I had the 7+ inches of ground clearance.
Where I normally drive there’s no real standard for parking lot ramps or speed bumps. I’ve seen a stock 928 Teeter Totter on a speed bump in a strip mall, I’ve scraped in a Stock Audi 90 Quattro 20V on a speed bump, unless you’re doing <5 MPH when going from a public road to a parking lot in a car with less than 7 inches of ground clearance in my area you’re scraping the underside of your car.
Not to mention the extra ground clearance helps when you live down a dirt road that doesn’t get plowed in the winter.
IMHO the best solution is height adjustable air suspension. Max ground clearance when you need it (at low speeds), and at high speeds the ground clearance reduces for better aero and a lower CG.
I agree. People also prefer to get in and out of their cars are a preferred height, which often doesn’t match the fixed height.
But, how much does that add to the car in terms of weight and money?
I mean, I could probably go to East LA and get an adjustable suspension…
Depends on the car. It’s really only useful for truly increasing ground clearance on vehicles with independent suspension all around. On cars with straight axles for the straight axle portion the axle itself doesn’t get more ground clearance, just everything else.
From my relatively limited experience with it (2 Second Gen Range Rovers and a LR3) It works great until it starts leaking, which considering the air bags are made of rubber the climate can affect the longevity of said air bags. Overall I think the MPG savings from having it cover the cost of the “early” replacement of the air bags relative to regular shocks. However (likely due to cost), they tend to only be found on higher end luxury vehicles. Also if you have dogs it makes it easier for them to get in the vehicle as well.
Jacking up the vehicle can be different, pretty sure for the LR3 you need to raise the air suspension all the way when you jack it up to prevent gravity from pulling the wheels and suspension arms down and in so doing pulling on the air bags, but otherwise it is normal.
The Tesla Model S, X, and Cybertruck all use height adjustable air suspension, for the aerodynamic benefits mostly, but that usually comes with an extra ground clearance mode as a bonus in this case. As with most things when the OEM does it it tends to work out, custom air suspension setups come with custom problems not covered by warranties, with limited parts availability.
If I were building a dedicated off road vehicle I’d almost certainly go with higher ground clearance with traditional shocks than air suspension, mainly due to simplicity and durability, but a dedicated off road vehicle makes for a poor on road vehicle. Like every street legal 4X4 they’re a compromise between off road and on road handling. Taking an on road vehicle and trying to make it the best off road vehicle is a fools errand, same goes for taking an off road vehicle and trying to make it the best on road vehicle. Height adjustable air suspension gives you off road ground clearance when you need it, sports car ground clearance at highway speeds, and regular ground clearance when you don’t need either of the aforementioned ground clearances.
Only if you don’t know to hit them at an angle.. I’ve seen people scrape on a Boston parking garage in whatever that bottom feeder Buick CUV is while my GR 86 never scrapes even hitting it at a faster speed than that Buick took it. It does matter in the snow, though, and I got taller winter tires for that reason, but the few days like that, I don’t usually go anywhere because I don’t have to deal with all the morons crashing. Took me 5.5 hours to get home once from a normal 1.5 hour drive all down to crashes and stupid people with shit tires and now I just take the day off.
I drive straight down straight roads, I hit speed bumps dead on because I drive straight down straight roads. If I have to maneuver my vehicle in a special way in order to drive down a road I drive down regularly in such a way it does not follow the rules of the road then my vehicle has failed its job of getting me down the road while following the rules of the road (exceptions for fallen trees, crashes, etc.).
Certainly there are many places on my drive up twisty single lane mountain roads where if I were to take the inside lane I would be able to sustain higher speeds, but if I were driving a car that required me to take the inside lane up those same roads (into oncoming traffic) just to do the speed limit I’d say my car has failed its job of getting me down the road while following the rules of the road.
I’d argue any car that requires you to hit speed bumps at any angle other than dead on has failed its job of getting you down the road while following the rules of the road.
If you want to drive on the left side of the road, move to England, Japan, or somewhere else where that is the law.
I don’t usually even have to use the full width of the lane and I don’t cross over lines. It’s an angle of a couple degrees to get one tire to contact just before the other—this isn’t rock crawling, I rarely slow down or might even hit the throttle just before impact.
Counterpoint: I prefer the Crosstrek regardless because it comes with actual tires and not the terrible riding rubber bands that come on the Impreza. I don’t even consider mine a crossover. It’s a car.
All fine but if you want me to consider it get rid of all that silly plastic cladding, black wheel-well accents and gaudy wheels that screams, “I’m a hatch that loves SUV cosplay!”
My Toyota RAV4 Prime shows 58 miles on EV mode.
Practically once a week or so I have to start engine. So 1500 miles before I fuel my car.
I keep wanting to get one, and I keep balking at the prices on the used market. Makes me frustrated
So the combined performance numbers would be 278hp and… don’t see a torque number for the electric motor.
In any case – this in a Forester could be a reasonable replacement for the long-gone XT model. I wonder if the electric motor would make the CVT feel any better and/or be any more reliable. I have 90,000 miles on mine and I’m on my second transmission.
Now if I can just get an accelerator pedal with more nuanced options than Nothing or Everything.
It’s not as simple as adding the numbers together as the peak powers happen at different revs.
Probably more like 200-210HP and 220ish torque.
I think the CVT would feel fine if they got rid of the fake gears. I don’t hear anybody complaining about the feel of the eCVT in the Highlander Hybrid or RAV4.
Did they lower the deck height to be the same as the regular Crosstrek this time?
Sounds like the Crosstrek might finally have enough power? Curious what the combined hp/tq will be, and if it translates to real-world drivability.
Now heat it up and put it in a WRX hatch.
It’s amazing/hilarious that Subaru and Toyota have had some level of partnership since 2005 yet there hasn’t been a hybrid Outback
Is this Toyota’s ecvt?
Seems like more hybrid systems paired with AWD are traditional/mechanical setups, not motors at the back like Toyota
I would imagine this is what will show up in the Forester, which is probably the segment that needs it more first here.
I see Thomas’ lips moving but hear the Subaru marketing departments voice.
So they come out with a hybrid that is somewhat decent, but still has a tiny battery and still has no plug-in capability for the masses. I’m guessing this thing will be *almost* good enough to be competitive.
Thanks Subaru… but you’re a day late and a dollar short.
I had a similarly skeptic thought when I was reading the article, but I also have little doubt that I’ll be seeing these things all over Colorado in short order. People love Subaru here, even the also-ran models.
I don’t know that the masses are demanding a plug-in that much.
I don’t think this would touch a rival Corolla Cross Hybrid’s 45 in the city, but long as it isn’t worse than a larger CR-V/RAV4/etc hybrid rated at/above 40, they should be alright.
Well I’m demanding it! And I have mass! Thus, they should build it!
A great deal of mass!
I think the evidence suggests that most people with plug-in hybrids aren’t plugging them in and just running them as regular hybrids. So it makes sense to save the weight, complexity, and cost and give people what they really want in this moment. An ICE vehicle with better fuel economy.
In my experience, my Crosstrek can do OK on the highway but it’s in urban driving where it struggles to break 20mpg. This hybrid direction improves fuel economy where it matters most and where most of us are seeing the worst fuel economy.
Finally the perfect merging of a hybrid and Subaru is here for my fellow Portlanders. This will be everywhere.
Colorado concurs.
Vermont checking in. These’ll sell like creemees in July.
The first time (at least in recent memory) that I saw a Crosstrek Hybrid was in California, and it was that Plasma Green Pearl. The weird thing is, it had Michigan plates.
I’ve seen at least one Plasma Green Pearl Crosstrek in Michigan since then, and I always wonder if it was the same one, since there can’t be that many of them here.
I wanted to want the older Crosstrek hybrids you mentioned, and did not buy them for the reasons you mentioned. A HEV/PHEV CUV w/ AWD (hello acronyms!) it’s the best vehicle for me right now, and it’s nice to see the options expanding.
I remember wanting to test drive the original XV hybrid, then seeing it had virtually no mpg gains to speak of (my Impreza from the same gen beat the EPA estimates, regularly averaging 36.5), I laughed. Opened the hatch to be greeted by a floor that had been raised to the point where it extended above the door and laughed even harder (seriously, it had to be 7″ higher than my Impreza floor). Such terrible packaging for non-existent efficiency gains.
For years I’ve be stuck between the two things I want…..a WRX wagon (or stateside Levorg….a boy can dream) and a modern hybrid Crosstrek. Either give me the fun or give me the efficiency dammit!
Last year I cross-shopped the Prius and the GTI because I was in the same boat.
When I got my current Crosstrek the final 3 were rounded out by a Kia Niro and Golf R. Subaru salesman just laughed when I said what I had narrowed it down to and make a smart assumption, “You’d already be doing paperwork if we still made a WRX wagon, wouldn’t you?”
If only they could make a mild-hybrid WRX wagon for a bit of effiency/power boost and balance out its atrocious fuel consumption whilst keeping the 6MT.
This is Subaru we’re talking here….slow it down. Small steps.
Also, random sidenote, saw another pipe dream of a Subaru the other day. Someone in my area when to the trouble of taking a Crosstrek and dropping what sounded like an STI powerplant running a ton of boost in it along with aftermarket suspension upgrades. Essentially a Crosstrek STI. Really wanted to know how much the build cost and how crazy the owner was to actually pull the trigger and do it.
Nope, not enough Rugged Black Plastic Trimâ„¢
It’s been frustrating that Subaru has not offered many hybrid options in their lineup but maybe they have taken so long because they were working on this setup to continue with their use of conventional All Wheel Drive and the Boxer engine. Otherwise, they could have used Toyota’s hybrid system like Mazda is with the CX-50.
Underlying cause there….Subaru spends a fraction on R&D compared to others, so they have to be very selective of what they put their focus towards. Just using Toyota’s would mean significant change beyond just the hybrid system (layout, mounting, packaging, etc), so even the “cheap” way out would be quiet expensive and have a cascade effect on future development costs of their own. Just hope they don’t get left behind in this gen….
Yes it all points to Subaru preferring a somewhat proprietary approach. They used to be unique because of their wide use of AWD, but now other manufacturers offer it on just about everything as well. Subaru has to be careful with what they choose in the drivetrain department lest they get lost in the sea of crossovers.
Yeah, but there’s a big difference between Subaru’s AWD and most competitors “AWD”. When people mention the poor mileage of Subaru vs competitors, a big reason is the actual full-time AWD system while the latter are reactive, really just FWD+. For most people who don’t even need AWD and buy it because they think they do, the latter system is a fine placebo and gets better mileage, but for someone who wants an AWD system that has actual value, they want a full time system like Subaru uses. Does the technical difference matter, though? Probably not to most people who would be better off with the mileage, so I wonder how Subaru is going to pivot to the future where boxers and AWD won’t make the difference. I guess there’s the outdoorsy image.
Can’t believe it’s taken so long.
If Subaru can put a compelling and efficient hybrid powertrain into all their products, watch out. They’ll be damn near everywhere (not that they aren’t already around here but you get the idea).
I can’t believe it either. Out of the non-niche manufacturers, I’ve always felt Subaru has the worst drivetrains and would be the best to embrace hybrid or full EVs. I get it, it’s a big investment hurdle from a relatively small manufacturer, but boy would it make all their cars substantially better.
Define non-niche. To me, that is what Subaru is, a niche-manufacturer.
A manufacturer that makes cars with the intent to be mass market in the US and useable for the every day person. They have proven capable to sell them by the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. They sell into multiple of the most popular market segments, at normal prices, and have inventory ready to move. I’m basically trying to exclude outliers like VinFast, Fisker, Karma, Elio, Vanderhall, Polaris, Mahindra, etc.
I’m sure that even Subaru, who was able to coast with some pretty mediocre powertrains, knows that if they’re going to want the good times to continue to roll, they’ll have to go the way of the hybrid.
My wife’s only complaint about her Forester (which she loves dearly) is the gas mileage. Fix that, and she won’t bother to look anywhere else the next time she’s in the market.
We have quite a few of the hybrid/phev crosstreks here in Western WA. I even briefly considered the PHEV version when I was looking for a plug-in. One read of the specs turned me off of that idea. Would be nice to see a full blown version of one some day.
Wake me when they give an Outback the hybrid treatment.
The Outback would seem to make more sense from engineering and sales perspectives because there is likely more unused volume in the vehicle for batteries, and a larger market to sell into. But what do we know? Likely Subaru has data to indicate there’s a larger sales opportunity for Crosstrek shoppers.
I’m going to guess that it has to do with what first time Subaru buyers buy. If the Crosstrek gets new customers and the Outback simply retains them then it makes sense to focus on the Crosstrek for new innovations
To be sure, the Crosstrek is the more “hip” option. Far from the days where the Outback was bought exclusively by roommates(just a couple o’ besties), they seem to have shifted to the older white male crowd. Not a lot of brand loyalty left for anything when you’re in your 70s. The CUV as a concept has poisoned the waters for wagonesque practicality.