Future Subaru's to vie for Biggest Loser title
Click above for a gallery of the Subaru R1e in New York
Future fuel economy and emissions regulations are going to make sweeping changes to the way our cars are designed. While many of the best innovations will be made to the powertrain - whether its electric, diesel, gasoline-powered or a combination thereof - there are plenty more ways to increase overall vehicle efficiency than just modifying what goes under the hood. To that end, Subaru looks to be investing heavily in technologies to reduce the overall weight of its vehicles.
New materials like high-tensile strength steel and new types of plastic will be used where standard stamped sheet steel had been specified in the past. The goal? By 2012, Subaru hopes to have shed an average of 10-percent of weight from its line, with another 5-percent coming by the 2015 model year. When combined with Subaru's newest engine technology, the Japanese automaker plans to decrease the fuel consumption of its cars by 40-percent before 2014.
Gallery: Subaru R1e in NYC
[Source: NASIOC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GoodCheer 3:18PM (12/17/2008)
That's good news. I really like the layout of Subys, but the mileage they get is just not good enough (for me).
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Dave 5:49PM (12/17/2008)
Gee, slow news day? You're only sourcing your news from a forum post dating back to last April which sourced it's news from another article.
One might think that Subaru's plans might have changed a bit in the past 8 months given how the economy has changed since then.
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paulwesterberg 5:46PM (12/17/2008)
Hopefully they will keep all wheel drive by using inwheel motors.
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G-Meister 1:16PM (12/18/2008)
lets hope NOT- Subaru has one of the only all mechanical awd systems available, and it should stay that way.
Owain Ozymandias Buck 8:13AM (12/18/2008)
Less mass=good
Apostrophes in plurals=bad ;)
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swaan 12:47PM (12/18/2008)
Subaru has a tough challenge with McDonalds customers :D I believe the latter are going to put more weight on by 2015 than Subaru can dream to shred off...
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ToneLoc 10:21PM (12/23/2008)
Hopefully Subaru will solve it's head gasket problems and bring timing chains to the 2.5 liter boxer engine. Personally, I'm hoping the 2.0 liter diesel makes it to North America in 2010.
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