Fuji Heavy Industries’ Subaru is considering expanding its Lafayette, Indiana, car factory to meet rising demand and to increase US output to offset losses caused by the high yen.
Subaru’s US chief operating officer Tom Doll told Bloomberg Radio “it becomes more difficult with production in Japan to import those vehicles into the United States. At some point a decision could be made to bring further production to the US.”
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The automaker has not yet decided to add Impreza cars or Forester crossovers alongside the Legacy and Outback built in Indiana. If this production is moved from Japan, a minimum of 50,000 units of capacity would be added.
Factory spokeswoman Jennifer McGarvey said Lafayette is expected to build a record 277,835 vehicles in 2012. Company spokesman Michael McHale said a decision was possible “within the next few months”.
Doll said Subaru could “probably add a second full factory” as it owns sufficient land at the Indiana site. Rivals Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda are all boosting North American capacity while VW’s Audi plans a plant in Mexico.
