Subaru Overview : 2001 - 2016

Subaru Corporation was until recently known as Fuji Heavy Industries. The name now identifies the company much better. Toyota has a modest stake in Subaru, which gives confidence to the smaller car maker. Going over company data gives a few insights into how it is doing. Sales from 2001 to 2010 stayed the same. Then from 2011 things grew quite quickly.

Comparing domestic and overseas production is easy as it involves only two countries. There seems to have been some minimal production in China just over a decade ago, but no more. The two nations now are Japan and the USA. Back in 2001, 81% was locally made and 19% manufactured overseas. It went to 85%-15% in 2008, but since then has moved to 71%-29%. The US operation is expanding to increase capacity.

To understand the importance of the US to the company, simply view the chart below. Back in 2012 188,000 cars were sold in North America but now it is 630,000. That's a move from 33% to 66%! Rather a lot of eggs are now in one basket.

Japan in the meantime has fallen from 290,000 to 145,000, dropping from just over 50% to 15%. Reduced sales in the tiny Kei car market appears to be a major factor. The 'Rest' has gone from 86,000 to 182,000 or 15% to 19%.

It seems that the biggest selling models have all improved, creating this upturn. The USA is a key market but maybe too much so. One thing that I can't work out is sales by country. Adding sales from the US and Canada (which I have from other sources) exceeds the North American total that Subaru states. I can't work out why that is. Whatever the reason, Subaru is on the increase and North America is its El Dorado.

Subaru Global Sales By Region
Yr	N Amer	%	Japan	%	Rest	%	Total	Yr
2001	187,691	33.3	290,301	51.5	86,246	15.2	564,238	2001
2002	207,013	37.9	264,257	48.4	75,259	13.7	546,529	2002
2003	210,088	38.8	245,525	45.3	86,331	15.9	541,944	2003
2004	205,787	37.1	245,541	44.3	102,715	18.6	554,043	2004
2005	210,423	36.2	254,039	43.7	117,172	20.1	581,634	2005
2006	209,946	36.7	230,165	40.3	131,264	23.0	571,375	2006
2007	206,523	35.7	226,811	39.2	144,604	25.1	577,938	2007
2008	210,347	35.3	208,690	35.0	177,628	29.7	596,665	2008
2009	207,113	37.3	178,789	32.2	169,431	30.5	555,333	2009
2010	249,856	44.4	171,272	30.4	141,709	25.2	562,837	2010
2011	307,018	46.7	158,105	24.1	191,841	29.2	656,964	2011
2012	308,595	48.2	172,342	26.9	158,925	24.9	639,862	2012
2013	390,213	53.9	163,122	22.5	171,131	23.6	724,466	2013
2014	477,812	57.9	181,601	22.0	165,685	20.1	825,098	2014
2015	570,069	62.6	162,752	17.9	177,874	19.5	910,695	2015
2016	630,253	65.8	145,288	15.2	181,712	19.0	957,253	2016

Data source: Subaru.