Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. unveiled the Subaru Global Platform, a work-in-progress that will result in a shared architecture for Subaru vehicles. As part of Subaru’s long-term plan to rebuild its branding, we’ll likely see the debut of this new architecture in the upcoming Impreza later this year. The redesigns of this generation have been made with the future in mind, with this platform expected to carry into 2025.
Subaru’s checklist for its Global Platform come down to safety, performance and cost-effective means of production and maintenance. Subaru already included that it aims to reach the world’s highest levels of safety, from energy absorption designs to overall stronger materials. New chassis and suspension designs also mean more responsive and stable vehicles, making them safer to drive and better performing when pushed to the limit. This single design concept includes every Subaru vehicle, which means gasoline engine models, hybrids, electric and other alternative power units. This change of platform could do a lot for the company’s manufacturing process, increasing production efficiency and (hopefully) reducing costs for the customer. We’ll find out later this year, as the Subaru Global Platform official begins rolling out.
Text by Cameron Parsons // Photos courtesy of Subaru
Tokyo, March 7, 2016 – Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), the manufacturer of Subaru automobiles, has unveiled an overview of the Subaru Global Platform, which is currently under development as the architecture to be used for all the Company’s next-generation vehicles.
The Subaru Global Platform is part of the six initiatives to enhance the Subaru brand described in the Company’s mid-term management vision, “Prominence 2020,” announced in 2014. Together with the horizontally-opposed engines, Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive (AWD), and EyeSight that represent Subaru’s core technologies, the new platform will constitute the basic foundation of the next generation of Subaru vehicles.
Marking the launch of the new concept, FHI President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga said, “The Subaru Global Platform lifts Subaru’s automotive technology to new heights, and marks the next step in the evolution of “Enjoyment and Peace of Mind,” the value that Subaru offers to its customers. This new platform represents the culmination of the know-how we have developed over many years, and we are confident that it will allow us to produce vehicles that live up to our proud traditions and meet the high expectations customers have of Subaru. We continue to work on designing ever-more attractive vehicles that offer the customer both enjoyment and peace of mind.”
Main Features of Subaru Global Platform
The next-generation platform is designed with the future in mind, and looks ahead to 2025. The main features include:
■ The biggest overall performance evolution in Subaru’s history
1. Emotionally engaging “Dynamic feel” that goes beyond high performance
2. The world’s highest levels of safety
■ Single design concept for development of all models, adaptable to electrification in the future
The Subaru Global Platform
■ The Biggest Overall Performance Evolution in Subaru’s History
1. Emotionally engaging “Dynamic feel” that goes beyond high performance
The new platform will make possible a new type of driving experience, appealing directly to the senses and offering unparalleled smoothness and comfort—all backed up by excellent performance and specifications. Specifically, the new platform will further refine Subaru’s dynamic feel in the following areas: (1) straight line stability, (2) noise and vibration suppression, and (3) comfort.
(1) Straight line stability
The new platform dramatically increases rigidity throughout the body and chassis (a 70% to 100% increase over present models) and incorporates substantial improvements to the suspension system and achieve a lower center of gravity, bringing about highly responsive steering that allows drivers to control the vehicle precisely as they want. The eradication of unnecessary movement in handling makes the car seem to grip the road surface, achieving a traveling performance that looks ahead to the need for enhanced straight line stability in the autonomous vehicles of the future.
(2) Noise and vibration suppression
Optimized frame structure and stronger joints between parts allow the new platform to improve overall torsional rigidity by 70% over present models. This distributes the resonance and distortion throughout the body, greatly reducing vibrations from the steering wheel, floor, and seats. It achieves a quietness that goes beyond vehicle class.
(3) Comfort
The new platform increases the rigidity of the suspension mounting, improving the absorption of the suspension without warping the body of the car, and providing a smooth and comfortable drive whatever the irregularities in the road surface. By mounting the rear stabilizer directly to the body, the new platform reduces the body roll of the vehicle by 50% compared to present models.
2．The world’s highest levels of safety
Active safety
The new platform achieves a center of gravity that is 5 mm lower than present models. Together with the major improvements in rigidity and the evolution of the suspension system, this lower center of gravity makes possible a more stable driving experience than ever before, and offers outstanding danger avoidance capabilities on a level with a high-performance sports car.
Passive safety
Thanks to a frame structure that enables more efficient energy absorption in the event of collision and the enhanced body rigidity resulting from the increased use of high-tensile steel plates including materials formed by the hot press method, impact energy absorption is improved by 40% over present models. The platform anticipates further improvements in strength and new materials and has the potential to continue to offer the world’s highest levels of collision safety even in 2025.
■ Single Design Concept for Development of All Models, Adaptable to Electrification in the Future
– The new platform will offer a single unified design concept for all Subaru models. Planning the main specifications of all vehicle types at one time and flexibly adjusting these basic specifications to match with the requirements of different models will strengthen the entire Subaru lineup while still allowing the Company to develop models that take advantage of each model’s strengths.
– The new concept allows one design concept to be adapted not only to gasoline engines but also to hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and other types of alternative power units for which demand will increase further.
– Development based on a single design concept makes it possible to use limited development personnel and facilities efficiently to develop a diverse range of models and to direct the resulting
savings into areas that can make our products more competitive.
– It will also become possible to produce platform components for multiple models in the same one production facility, rather than manufacturing them in different factories as has been the case in the past. This will increase production efficiency at Subaru’s factories and at our partner companies. The new unified design concept will also make it easier for our two factories in Japan and the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant in the United States to carry out bridge production of multiple different models on a single line, making our global production system more flexible.
The Subaru Global Platform that offers these benefits will be used in the development of all Subaru vehicles from now on, beginning with the next-generation Impreza, due to hit the market in 2016. FHI remains true to its management philosophy—to become “a compelling company with a strong market presence” on the basis of “customer-first” policy. The Company will continue to pursue engineering excellence and offer its customers “Enjoyment and Peace of Mind” to achieve FHI/Subaru distinctive presence.