Patent Shows Progress on Subaru Plug-In Development
Subaru has filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a design showing the integration of a battery into a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
The patent could be a sign that Subaru is making progress on its first series-production plug-in. The automaker is working with partners such as Toyota and Mazda on the vehicle and will even use Toyota parts in the vehicle, Subaru’s chief technical officer Takeshi Tachimori revealed earlier this year.
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The design shown here is for an EV with the lithium-ion battery pack mounted at the rear of the vehicle and an internal combustion engine in the front. The engine is displayed as a simple square illustration, with the electric motor appearing as the smaller box next to the engine in Figure 1. A hatchback or crossover type vehicle is used in the example drawings, but it should be noted that these drawings are rarely representative of the finished product.
Subaru also filed to trademark the Evoltis name in the US recently, leading to speculation that this name will be applied to the upcoming plug-in. The vehicle is expected to debut later this year and will be Subaru’s first production hybrid since the Crosstrek hybrid went out of production in 2016.
Discuss this story on our Subaru Crosstrek Forum.
Sam McEachern holds a diploma in journalism from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, and has been covering the automotive industry for over 5 years. He conducts reviews and writes AutoGuide's news content. He's a die-hard motorsports fan with a passion for performance cars of all sorts.
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