- Mid-2025 arrival of Forester Hybrid now pegs it for 2025 model year, not 2026
- Signs aren’t pointing to a charge port for this Subaru AWD hybrid
- Hybrid system was developed with Toyota, plus yet-to-be-detailed Subaru bits
Subaru has adjusted the timeline for its upcoming Forester Hybrid, which marks the first time a hybrid powertrain has been applied to the automaker’s popular crossover SUV in the U.S.
Subaru announced the Forester Hybrid in late 2023 at the Los Angeles auto show. Non-hybrid Forester versions went on sale earlier this year as 2025 models, with the hybrid previously expected to arrive late next year as a 2026 model. But Subaru’s website is now listing the Forester Hybrid as a 2025 model as well—with an arrival in mid-2025.
Teaser for 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid
While it does sell the all-electric Solterra in the U.S., Subaru doesn’t offer a hybrid in this market, and hasn’t since the Crosstrek Hybrid was discontinued after the 2023 model year. The Crosstrek Hybrid was actually a plug-in hybrid, combining Toyota-sourced components with a Subaru boxer engine and all-wheel drive system.
It’s now also looking increasingly likely that the Forester Hybrid, prototypes of which have been spotted testing, won’t have a charge port, but will use the “Strong Hybrid” powertrain that debuted earlier this year on a new version of the Crosstrek Hybrid for the Japanese market. Further, the badging that Subaru has teased doesn’t incorporate “plug-in hybrid” in the same manner.
Subaru Strong Hybrid powertrain
Subaru’s home-market version of this hybrid system again relies on Toyota motor hardware and a 1.1-kwh battery pack, working with a Subaru 2.5-liter flat-4 and all-wheel drive system. Subaru has confirmed that this system will have two motors and, like Toyota’s long-running Hybrid Synergy Drive, or Toyota Hybrid System, will have parallel and series hybrid modes—although it hasn’t yet been detailed how much of the system it’s developed or may be building this time versus what might have be procured from Toyota.
In the Japanese-market Crosstrek Hybrid, the gasoline engine produces 158 hp on its own while the electric motor system contributes 88 hp. Subaru has said it expects a 20% decrease in fuel consumption for the Crosstrek Hybrid and a two-second reduction in the 0-60 mph time. While it’s unclear how much of that improvement might carry over, Subaru has only said about the U.S.-bound Forester Hybrid that it will be quicker than the non-hybrid.
2025 Subaru Forester
Subaru and Toyota will also continue partnering on EVs. In addition to the Solterra and its Toyota bZ4X twin, a second jointly-developed electric SUV will reportedly launch in 2026, one of four EVs Subaru has said it will introduce by the end of 2028 on the way to 50% EV sales by 2030.
