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Subaru

Subaru is a publicly listed auto manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. In 2019 it had US$28.5 billion in revenue and sales of over 1 million vehicles. Subaru’s largest sales regions are North America and Japan, with more limited sales in Canada, Australia, Europe and Russia.

Summary

Subaru has a performance score of 5.1 out of 20 against a well below 2-degree pathway. This is lower than Subaru’s 2019 performance score of 7.8, when it was assessed against the less ambitious 2-degree pathway.

The company’s transition planning has improved since the previous assessment. Subaru is aiming for at least 40 percent of its global sales to be electric or hybrid electric vehicles by 2030. This is nearly aligned with its well below 2-degree pathway, which expects that 42.3 percent of its light duty vehicle sales globally will be battery electric, plug-in hybrids or fuel cell electric vehicles by 2030. The company has set a target to reduce emissions from its direction operations (scope 1 and 2) by 100 percent by 2050, but it should set intermediary targets to guide emissions reductions in the short term. The vast majority of carmakers’ emissions come from the use of their vehicles. It is significant therefore that this year, Subaru sets a target covering its vehicle in-use emissions and the indirect upstream emissions from fuel production, which aims to reduce these emissions by 90 percent by 2050. However, it has not yet provided this target’s 2010 base year emissions for analysis. Consequently, this target’s alignment with the company’s well below 2-degree pathway could not be assessed.

Total score: 5.1/20
Assessment Note: Subaru received a full ACT assessment in 2019.

Performance module name	Performance module score	Rank (0-30)
Targets	1.1 /3	#8
Material Investment	0.0 /0.4	#12
Intangible Investment	0.5 /2.4	#22
Sold product performance	1.6 /7	#27
Management	1.3 /2.2	#3
Supplier	0.3 /1.2	#10
Client	0.0 /0.8	#15
Policy Engagement	0.1 /1.2	#22
Business Model	0.1 /1.8	#24

Subaru performed more poorly on indicators measuring its current and recent climate performance. Subaru’s low-carbon vehicle sales share is extremely low, with only around 0.003 percent of total sales in 2019 coming from plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles. No programmes to increase low-carbon vehicle sales, such as financial incentives for consumers or marketing campaigns, were found.

It is perhaps unsurprising therefore that Subaru made no progress in reducing its average vehicle in-use emissions between 2014 and 2019, which remain close to 162 grams CO2e per kilometre. It also indirectly opposes positive climate policy through its membership of the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association, which opposed enhancements to the European Union’s emissions standards for cars and vans in 2018.

See results for

2019
2021

More about the company

Headquarters: Japan
Ownership structure: Publicly listed
Revenue (2019): US$28.5 billion
Number of vehicles sold (2019): 1,001,730
Website: https://www.subaru.co.jp/en/