Subaru Corp expects its U.S. vehicle sales to boost to a record high in 2020, as demand for its SUV crossover models assists it to buck the environment of slowing car sales in the Japanese automaker’s biggest market.
The company has seen increasing success in the United States, the world’s No.2 auto market, roughly doubling the number of vehicles sold during the past 6 years, much because of a ramp-up in local production capacity and a marketing strategy focused largely on affluent and liberal-minded consumers featuring slogans such as love and inclusion.
Japan’s smallest automaker stated that ongoing U.S. demand for its Forester and Outback models would likely increase overall sales in the country to 720,000 to 730,000 units next year, up by as much as 4.3% from the around 700,000 vehicles it expects to sell by the end of this year.
“We expect the U.S. market to slow only slightly next year, so we’re preparing to see more growth in our sales. We think we can achieve this,” CEO Tomomi Nakamura informed reporters in Tokyo.
He added that he saw the potential for the automaker to expand its share of the SUV market, which stood at around 7% at the moment since Subaru’s SUV models outsell its sedan models, which include the Legacy and the Imprezza.
“If competition in the U.S. SUV market continues, that segment will keep growing even as the overall market slows,” he stated.
U.S. sales represent around 65% of Subaru’s overall worldwide sales of around 1 million units. By the end of November, sales of the Forester this year had climbed 6.4% from a year earlier, while sales of the Outback, its best-selling model in the country, increased by 0.9%.
