Subaru to Increase Indiana Plant's Production by 40 Percent

Subaru plans to boost production capacity at its Indiana-based assembly plant by 40 percent this year, due to booming demand for the Outback wagon and the Legacy sedan.

Fuji Heavy Industries, owner of the Subaru brand, targets U.S. sales of 230,000 vehicles for 2010, said spokesman Masashi Uemura today, quoted by the Automotive News. Subaru’s sales goal represents a 6 percent increase over the 216.652 vehicles it sold in 2009.

The increase of production involves Subaru’s plant located in Lafayette, Indiana. It currently has a capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year, but the Japanese company wants to increase that to 140,000, according to Uemura. He did not explain how Subaru was going to boost capacity but, basically, there are three ways to do it: adding a new line, increasing the speed of production or "stealing" the capacity that is currently going to Toyota.

The plant has a separate line with capacity of 100,000 units on which the Toyota Camry is produced. Outback and Legacy sales in the U.S. more than doubled in the first three months of the year, the Outback reaching 19,275 units sold and the Legacy 8,550. As a consequence, production at the Indiana plant doubled as compared to last year. To keep up with demand, Subaru has already been increasing the pace of production.

The Outback’s production in Indiana started last summer, along with a new-generation Legacy sedan. The investment necessary to boost capacity of the Lafayette plant is estimated to be in the area of tens of millions of dollars by Japan’s business daily newspaper, Nikkan Kogyo.