Why U.S. Customers Don’t Share Their Subaru Outback With The World

The 2021 Subaru Outback made at the Lafayette, Indiana plant, is exclusively for North Americans. Subaru Indiana Automotive makes the Outback, Ascent, Impreza, and Legacy models, and they don’t ship any of them to other global markets. Subaru Corporation builds a different Outback version for the rest of the world.

North American customers are the only ones who get the Outback XT with the turbocharged 2.4-liter Boxer engine. Australia just announced its new 2021 Outback, and it only comes with the 2.5-liter naturally aspirated engine. And they don’t get the next-generation Outback model until March 2021. Americans have had the new-generation model since 2019, and it's now one of the top-10 selling SUVs.

Photo credit: Competition Subaru

The Outback, the rest of the globe gets, is built at Subaru Corporation’s Yajima factory in Japan. The Forester, Crosstrek (XV in other global markets), Impreza, and Legacy are also built in Yajima, Japan.

The Subaru Crosstrek (XV), and Impreza, are also built at the Gunma plant in Japan along with the WRX, WRX STI, BRZ, and Levorg models. The Forester, Crosstrek, WRX, WRX STI, and BRZ are all shipped to the U.S. from Japan.

Subaru sells 66 percent of all its cars in the U.S., and the Japanese automaker prioritizes its customers. In a recent interview with Automotive News (by subscription), Subaru CEO Tomomi Nakamura says Subaru will put most of its focus on the U.S. and its customers. Like the Subaru Outback, U.S. customers will get Subaru’s new all-electric model before other global markets.

The Subaru Outback, up until this year, was the best-selling model for Subaru of America (SOA). Last month, the Camden, N.J. automaker reported the Outback wagon was the number one model by volume with 12,921 units delivered to customers.

As the top-performing nameplate by volume, Outback sales increased 3.5 percent in November 2020 compared with the same month a year ago. SOA has sold 136,022 Outback wagons year-to-date.

The 2021 Subaru Outback built in Lafayette, Indiana, stays in North America. The 2021 Outback XT with the 2.4-liter turbocharged engine is unique and manufactured only for North American customers.

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Denis Flierl has invested over 30 years in the automotive industry in a consulting role working with every major car brand. He is an accredited member of the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press. Check out Subaru Report where he covers all of the Japanese automaker's models. More stories can be found on the Torque News Subaru page. Follow Denis on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Photo credit: Subaru