Subaru has long leaned on the five-door version of the Impreza for volume in the small-car segment. But with the next-generation arriving this year, Subaru wants the sedan variant to do more heavy lifting.
Subaru's entry car is skewed heavily toward hatchbacks. As a result, sedan-oriented rivals such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cruze easily outsell Subaru in the segment.
Hatches account for 70 percent of the Impreza's U.S. sales, compared with 30 percent for its sedan, says Kazuhiro Abe, project general manager for the Impreza. The opposite is usually true for competitor models, with sedans accounting for the lion's share of total volume.
But with the full redesign expected to arrive stateside in November, Abe wants to achieve a better balance, with the sedan variant growing to about 40 percent of total volume.
"We want to keep the five-door volume and see the sedan volume go rapidly up," Abe told Automotive News.
Subaru has not disclosed a sales target for the new-generation Impreza, which debuted at this year's New York auto show. The company sells about 270,000 Impreza sedans and hatches globally. The U.S. is the car's biggest market, Abe says. Last year, its U.S. sales surged 20 percent to 100,519 vehicles, including the WRX, a sporty trim version that now is marketed separately. (Impreza sales without the WRX rose 15 percent to 66,785; WRX sales rose 32 percent to 33,734.)
Subaru now hopes to chip away at rivals' sedan sales by luring customers with improved ride and handling, a more upscale interior and class-leading safety features.
The Impreza is the first nameplate to get Subaru's new modular platform, which the automaker says will improve safety and driving performance. The Impreza also is debuting a design language dubbed Dynamic X Solid to enliven the brand's image.
To feed what Subaru hopes will be booming demand for the next-generation Impreza, Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries is expanding capacity this year at its Lafayette, Ind., plant to add output of the Impreza.
The company aims to increase capacity for Subaru vehicles there by the end of this year to 394,000 vehicles a year, up from 200,000 now.
But Subaru does not expect Impreza sedan sales to exceed the hatchback's, Abe clarifies. That is because buyers choose Subaru for its image as a purveyor of wagon-style utility vehicles.
He says he isn't concerned about increased competition from such new hatchback entries as the Honda Civic five-door. "I don't have any worries," Abe said of the Civic. "It's very sporty and stylish, but its utility is questionable. Our users' needs are utility and safety."
