Subaru plans to increase capacity by 30% in the US, its only overseas production facility, according to the Nikkei.
The business daily said Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries would spend JPY20bn (US$230m) on Subaru of Indiana Automotive by fiscal 2016 to increase production of Subaru models by some 30,000 units by 2014. Indiana has capacity to build 170,000 units a year, mostly Legacy and Outback.
The all wheel drive models are particularly popular in north east ‘snow belt’ states.
The plant also builds the Camry for minority Fuji shareholder Toyota, supplementing that automaker’s own production in the south. The Nikkei, which didn’t cite sources, suggested the plan is to raise Camry production from 100,000 to 170,000 units a year.
Subaru sold a record 330,000 vehicles in the US in 2012 with half shipped from Japan where demand is also strong.
The Nikkei noted that, in 2011, Fuji Heavy announced plans to boost annual global sales to over 1m units by the end of the decade, a 50% increase over 2010 levels.
Current installed capacity at Indiana and Gunma Prefecture, Japan – the two key production sites – is around 750,000 units, the Nikkei.
