Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI) has unveiled the new Subaru Global Platform, the basic technical architecture that will be used for the company’s next generation of vehicles.

The Subaru Global Platform is part of the six initiatives designed to enhance the Subaru brand described in the company’s mid-term management vision, ‘Prominence 2020’, announced in 2014. Together with horizontally-opposed engines, Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive (AWD), and EyeSight that represent Subaru’s core technologies, the new platform will constitute the basic foundation for future cars.

Marking the launch of the new concept, FHI President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga said, “The Subaru Global Platform lifts Subaru’s automotive technology to new heights, and marks the next step in the evolution of ‘Enjoyment and Peace of Mind’, the value that Subaru offers to its customers. This new platform represents the culmination of the know-how we have developed over many years, and we are confident that it will allow us to produce vehicles that live up to our proud traditions and meet the high expectations customers have of Subaru. We continue to work on designing ever-more attractive vehicles that offer the customer both enjoyment and peace of mind.”

Among the priorities are straight-line stability via increased rigidity throughout the body and chassis (a 70 to 100 per cent increase over present models), noise and vibration suppression via a seventy per cent increase in torsional rigidity, and comfort.

The company is also aiming for the world’s highest levels of safety. Active safety is improved by a center of gravity that is 5 mm lower than present models, promoting a more stable driving experience. In terms of passive safety, there’s a frame structure that enables more efficient energy absorption in the event of collision, and enhanced body rigidity resulting from increased use of high-tensile steel plates. Impact energy absorption is improved by 40 per cent over present models.

There is also a single design concept for the development of all models, and the design is adaptable for electrification in the future. The new platform allows one design concept to be adapted not only to gasoline engines but also to hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and other types of alternative power units.

The new unified design concept will also make it easier for Subaru’s two factories in Japan and the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant in the United States to carry out production of multiple different models on a single line, making the company’s global production system more flexible.

The first new model to use the Subaru Global Platform will be the next-generation Impreza, due later in 2016.