With a bevvy of new, more fuel efficient products boosting its presence in North America and China, Subaru says it is aiming to increase its worldwide sales by 40 percent over the next five years.
The Japanese automaker said today that it is gunning for 900,000 units globally in the next five years and more than 1 million units annually within 10 years. Subaru says it has high hopes for introduction of a new compact lineup – the 2012 Impreza – and a new, smaller crossover aimed primarily at Europe and Asia. But Subaru says it expects most of its growth to come from the United States and China, where the automaker hopes to sell a combined 190,000 more cars in 2015 than it did last year.
China has generally proved elusive for Subaru, which sells the same lineup in the world’s largest car market as it does in the U.S. Unlike North America, however, Subaru has yet to develop a manufacturing presence in China.
But once it finds a local partner for vehicle assembly, Subaru thinks that it will be able to sell around 180,000 cars in China by 2016, about half of what it anticipates delivering in the U.S. Should Subaru capitalize on its goal in China, the market will unseat Japan as the automaker’s second-largest.
To go along with its increased sales goals, Subaru is targeting a $1.5 billion operating profit for the fiscal year that ends in March of 2016, a roughly 50 percent increase over its operating profit last year.
