New Subaru Forester not here until 2025

The sixth-generation Subaru Forester will not go on sale in Australia until 2025, the Japanese brand has confirmed.

Subaru's latest midsized SUV was unveiled in late 2023 and was expected to go on sale locally sometime in the second half of 2024.

It is due to go on sale in Subaru's biggest market, the US, in the second quarter of this year.

The delay between the global reveal and local launch is not an ideal scenario, with the potential to affect Forester sales this year as buyers consider waiting for the new model.

The Forester is Subaru's best-selling model and enjoyed a record sales year in 2023.

Subaru Australia believes the next Forester has even greater potential, benefitting from a new hybrid system co-developed with Toyota that should improve on the disappointing petrol-electric currently offered, while a turbo variant looks set to make a welcome return to the range.

“The Forester is the No.1 model for the brand globally and we need to bring our A-game and put our best foot forward with the 2025 Forester,” said the company’s managing director, Blair Read.

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“Obviously the Strong Hybrid will be a real boost for the new-gen Forester. We want it to maintain its place as the best model for the brand. So, we've got some exciting plans to keep Forester at its rightful place at the head of the Subaru brand."

Strong Hybrid is Subaru’s designation for a series-parallel petrol-electric system, used as a differentiator to its Mild Hybrid ‘e-Boxer’ engines (though they’re marketed as Hybrid models locally).

The Strong Hybrid system will pair Toyota’s proven hybrid technology with Subaru’s flat-four-cylinder ‘boxer’ engines, and will be “tuned specifically for the Forester”. It should deliver both better performance and fuel efficiency than the current Forester e-Boxer.

Subaru Australia will launch the new Forester with a regular petrol engine and the hybrid drivetrain, while a turbocharged XT variant is set to return after being dropped for the fifth-generation range.

Read said the company couldn’t yet confirm any news for a turbo Forester but acknowledged last year’s addition of a turbo variant to the Outback line-up had proven successful – accounting for about 40 per cent of the wagon’s sales.

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“That it's an interesting one because we get a lot of feedback on [a turbocharged Forester] and we do think it would be something that has potential,” he said.

“But then we look at Forester sales last year and we have a record year. So part of the challenge is when you have a good order bank on the product and it's going well… It’s always tempting to get distracted with adding new things, but we've got to do right by the existing customers, so would we like it? Nothing else to share on that at this stage.”

Read said an electric Forester could also be viable in the future, though only if the technology didn’t detract from the SUV’s reputation.

“It’s more about whether [an electric Forester] would live up to the Subaru values. If you get that right, what people expect of that is that a Forester is a Forester, not if it’s a petrol, hybrid or EV [Forester]. You could get that wrong if you don’t stay true to what the nameplate represents.”

Subaru has just launched its first fully electric vehicle, the Solterra, an SUV the company says lives up to brand expectations by offering good ground clearance, all-wheel drive, and even an X-mode off-road system like the Forester.

Priced from $69,990, the Solterra is currently the most expensive Subaru offered.