Subaru’s electric car portfolio has grown significantly, with the company now having three EVs in its U.S. lineup, triple compared to last year. This growth is great news for brand fans who were waiting for more Subaru-branded electric cars. However, to make people aware of these cars, Subaru has naturally boosted its marketing efforts.
As it turns out, it takes a lot of money to market new cars. During the April-June quarter, Subaru spent three times the money to promote the Solterra, Uncharted, and Trailseeker compared to its gas car portfolio. Specifically, the company spent $9,650 on marketing for each Solterra it sold from April through June, $9,155 for each Uncharted sale, and $8,982 for each Trailseeker.
View Price on AmazonBy comparison, marketing spending for the Outback, the brand’s third-best-selling model in the U.S., averaged at $3,036 for each unit sold. The result is pretty grim, with the expenses contributing to a 44% drop in the company’s operating profit in the first fiscal quarter that ended on June 30, going from $472 million last year to $263.2 million this year.
Meanwhile, U.S. sales of the Solterra dropped by 21% in the first half of the year, while the Uncharted and Trailseeker, which went on sale recently, amassed roughly 2,500 sales each by the end of June. Overall, Subaru sold 10,064 EVs stateside from January through June, a drop in the bucket compared to the brand’s total sales of 307,340 units.
The best-selling Forester crossover reached over 100,000 new customers, followed by the Crosstrek with 87,623 units sold. Overall, Subaru’s U.S. sales dropped 4.5% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2025. Spending so much money on anything is not how Subaru typically does things, but the extra spending was likely necessary to keep sales at a relatively stable level after the $7,500 federal tax credit was canceled last year.
Source: insideevs.com
