Subaru Chief Sees Plenty of Growth Ahead

DALLAS – High demand coupled with supply-chain issues hit Subaru of America particularly hard the past couple of years and interrupted a long string of record sales. In an ideal world where none of that happens, Subaru’s U.S. sales could someday be in the neighborhood of an astounding 40% higher, says Tom Doll, president and CEO.

“We’re around 4% of the market,” Doll says at the Auto Team America Dealer/CEO/CFO Forum held in conjunction with the 2023 NADA Show. “We think it’s possible to get to 5% or more.”

Subaru of America’s light-vehicle U.S. market share was 4% for 2023, on sales of 556,581. Unit sales are down about 4.7% so far in 2023.

But if U.S. light-vehicle sales were 17 million, as they were before the pandemic, a market share of about 5% would put Subaru in the range of 750,000 to 800,000 units, Doll says.

He says Subaru’s present lineup is particularly tailored for U.S. consumer tastes, citing the 3-row Subaru Ascent and top-of-the-line Wilderness trim and equipment packages for the Subaru Outback and Subaru Forester. Additional Wilderness packages may be in the works, he says, possibly hinting at an Ascent Wilderness edition.

“For us at least, consumer demand is still very strong. We’ve got record amounts of lead traffic, record amounts of web traffic. We really haven’t seen any decline in our demand levels,” he says. “I really think we’re positioned well for when the market returns.”