Subaru Corp. said Wednesday it will start producing electric vehicles in the United States as early as 2027, as the Japanese carmaker accelerates its shift toward battery-driven vehicles under its new president.

"We have decided on production in the United States," President Atsushi Osaki said at a press conference in Tokyo. "Considering the speed of the shift to EVs in the U.S., we thought it was about time."

Osaki, who took the helm at the company in June, said it is still undecided on where production will take place, though joint production with a partner such as Toyota Motor Corp. remains under consideration.

Subaru aims to sell 400,000 EVs in the U.S. market in 2028, he said. The automaker has a factory in Indiana.

The new president also revealed an array of new targets for 2030, including a plan to sell 600,000 EVs worldwide, accounting for 50 percent of its overall sales target in the same year, and investment of around 1.5 trillion yen ($10.5 billion) in vehicle electrification.

The company previously projected that EVs and hybrid cars will constitute 40 percent of its global sales in 2030.

Subaru currently sells only one electric model, Solterra, which was jointly developed by Toyota. It will launch seven more EV models by the end of 2028, Osaki said.

==Kyodo

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