Subaru is known for its use of the boxer engine layout in most of its vehicles above 1500 cc as well as its use of the all wheel drivedrive-train layout since 1972, with it becoming standard equipment for mid-size and smaller cars in most international markets by 1996, and now standard in most North American market Subaru vehicles. The lone exception is the RWD BRZ introduced in 2012. Subaru also offers turbocharged versions of their passenger cars, such as the Impreza WRX.
Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a partial partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI.[2]
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster (M45, or "The Seven Sisters" <one of whom tradition says is invisible--hence only six stars in the Subaru logo>), which in turn inspires the logo and alludes to the companies that merged to create FHI.[3]
Contents
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1 History
1.1 Major shareholders
1.2 Subaru in the United States
1.3 Subaru in Canada
1.4 Subaru in the Philippines
1.5 Marketing efforts
1.5.1 Hōkago no Pleiades (Original net animation)
1.6 Motorsports
1.7 Diesel
2 New technology
3 Historic cars
4 Environmental record
5 Electric vehicles
6 Current models
7 Concept cars
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
History[edit]
Former logo on a Subaru 360 showing six stars in an arrangement similar to thePleiades open star cluster
Fuji Heavy Industries started out as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1915, headed by Chikuhei Nakajima. In 1932, the company was reorganized as Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd and soon became a major manufacturer of aircraft for Japan during World War II. At the end of the Second World War Nakajima Aircraft was again reorganized, this time as Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd. In 1946, the company created the Fuji