At a time when the majority of Japanese automakers are moving production out of their domestic country, Subaru and its parents, Fuji Heavy Industries, are looking to do just the opposite. The plan as of now is for Subaru to build 78 percent of its annual output inside Japan by the end of this fiscal year. Last year, the automaker pumped out about 73 percent of its product domestically and it isn’t looking to revert.
“A large-scale expansion in the U.S., where we build new factory buildings and such, will cost a lot,” said Chief Financial Officer for Fuji Heavy Industries, Mitsuru Takahashi in an interview with Automotive News. The reasoning behind the mainstream domestic production pulls by manufactures like Nissan, who plans to make the majority of their Infiniti line U.S. built, is due to the increasingly strong Yen. For the big name makes, it has been getting more and more taxing to build a vehicle in Japan and then have it exported to its main market. Given Toyota and Honda have a massive hold in the United States, it makes financial sense to increase production inside the bigger market. Subaru on the other hand, is a bit different.
