Subaru Forester Hybrid: carsales Car of the Year 2020 contender

The current-generation Subaru Forester debuted in Car of the Year testing back in 2018, but the Forester has earned another crack at the title in 2020 with the introduction of two hybrid variants.

These effectively form a sub-category within the broader Forester model range, which makes the Forester Hybrid eligible for judging in the 2020 carsales Car of the Year, proudly presented by Bingle.

Powered by an electric motor and a smaller-displacement 2.0-litre engine, the Subaru Forester Hybrid replaces the diesel variants formerly available in the local market.

It’s a series/parallel hybrid that can recharge its battery on the move, as well as driving through either or both the petrol engine and the electric motor.

Although the Forester has long held a reputation for being a little less confounded than some medium SUV rivals when the road turns to gravel, the jury’s still out in regard to the off-road ability of the hybrid models.

There’s 66kW of torque available from the electric motor and 196Nm from the petrol engine, but combined power and torque doesn’t feel that strong, we’ve noted.

So this is a Forester variant that’s less likely to go bush.

It may be purchased by someone needing a family car that will be called upon to tow a box trailer or personal watercraft on occasions.

But mostly it will negotiate peak-hour traffic, where its hybrid powertrain could save a significant amount of money over an extended period of ownership.

This suggests that the Forester Hybrid is likely to sell to young professionals with a growing family. They’re perhaps PAYG earners buying the Subaru with a novated lease and they possibly live in that ring of suburbs between 10 and 20km from the city centre.

Those buyers have possibly owned earlier models of Subaru and feel comfortable with what the brand stands for and the sort of ownership costs the Forester Hybrid could deliver.

Roughly $3000 separates the two variants of Forester Hybrid from their conventional counterparts, with the Forester Hybrid L priced at $39,990 plus on-road costs, and the upmarket Forester Hybrid S $6000 more at $45,990. In general terms, the two hybrid variants are trimmed to the same respective specification as the Forester 2.5i-L and 2.5i-S.

At entry level, the Forester Hybrid L is equipped as standard with the following features: 17-inch alloy wheels, adaptive cruise control, six-speaker audio, digital radio, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, voice recognition, leather-bound steering wheel and gear shifter, dual-zone climate control, rain-sensing wipers and auto-on headlights.

The flagship Forester Hybrid S adds 18-inch alloy wheels, satellite navigation, a sunroof, Harman Kardon audio, leather upholstery, an 8.0-inch infotainment display (in lieu of a 6.5-inch unit), front power-adjustable seats with position memory function, X-Mode and SI-Drive.

Behind the wheel of the high-spec Forester Hybrid S, Tim Britten wrote: “With residual values just short of 65 per cent of the new price after three years, the Subaru Forester – in terms of value retention – is among the top-rated SUVs.

“And, over that long term, it’s likely that the shortfalls in fuel economy experienced with our review car would average out in its eventual favour. That said, the hybrid’s $3000 premium over regular Foresters still represents quite a lot of petrol.”

Ken Gratton wasn’t quite as generous, noting in his review of the base-model Forester Hybrid that its “powertrain credentials leave something to be desired”.

“That is, unless you encounter heavy traffic every morning: traffic snarls each banked around 200m and cars travelling no faster than about 30km/h over that short distance. That’s when the petrol-electric Subaru Forester Hybrid might just make up for the difference in purchase price,” he said.

The importance of ownership costs in the final judgement mean the Forester Hybrid could be the darkest of dark horses in the running for 2020 carsales Car of the Year, proudly presented by Bingle.

Subaru Forester Hybrid L at a glance:
Price: From $39,990
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol-electric
Output: 110kW/196Nm (electric motor: 12.3kW/66Nm)
Fuel: 6.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 152g/km (ADR Combined)

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