The 2025 Subaru Forester shares its 2.5-liter naturally aspirated flat-four engine with its predecessor. Soon, however, its powertrain lineup will expand. At the L.A. Auto Show reveal of the 2025 Forester Thursday, Subaru announced that a hybrid will join the Forester lineup a year after launch.
“While the all-new Forester will begin sales with [internal-combustion] engines, a next-generation hybrid Forester will follow in another year,” said Subaru CEO Atsushi Osaki at the vehicle launch. “This will be the first-ever Subaru Forester Hybrid, it represents the next step in our new electrification plan, with more electrified models to follow quickly.”
Subaru did offer the previous-generation Forester with its e-Boxer hybrid powertrain in Europe, so this won’t be the first electrified Forester. The company offered no further details on the powertrain at the reveal press conference.
At the moment, Subaru doesn’t offer any hybrids in the U.S., but a Crosstrek plug-in hybrid should arrive soon. Major Forester rivals like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, and Hyundai Tuscon all offer hybrid powertrains, with all but the Honda offered as plug-in hybrids as well.
Subaru says the 2025 Forester will arrive at dealers next spring, so we figure that the hybrid will arrive for the 2026 model year. It’s not a moment too soon, as automakers are pushing a renewed focus on hybrids in the greater transition towards electric vehicles.
Senior Reporter
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins is Road & Track’s engineering nerd and Porsche apologist. He joined the staff in 2016 and no one has figured out a way to fire him since. He street-parks a Porsche Boxster in Brooklyn, New York, much to the horror of everyone who sees the car, not least the author himself. He also insists he’s not a convertible person, despite owning three.