For the past 19 years Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI) has entered its Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) in WRC competitions in the pursuit of our goals of further enhancing Subaru brand awareness and elevating its brand image. Through its WRC entry, the Subaru factory team has endeavored to communicate the idea that Subaru vehicles provide safe, comfortable and pleasurable driving on differing terrain or roads around the world and under any climate conditions, all of which is enabled by our core technologies: Horizontally-Opposed engines and the Symmetrical All-Wheel drive system. The FIA WRC has been the most effective venue for Subaru vehicles to demonstrate their essential traits.
Subaru has won three WRC manufacturer’s championship titles and three driver’s championship titles. We now believe that our initial objective to enhance the value of the Subaru brand through WRC participation has been attained by these achievements. In addition, WRC has provided us with the know-how and technology required for grueling rally driving, which have fed back into our work in the development of Subaru cars.
Subaru’s disappointing results in the WRC in the past three years, however, prompted us to review participation in WRC and motorsports activities in our overall Subaru branding strategy as we drew up our future management plan. In this process we mulled over the idea of “graduating” from WRC and considered withdrawal at the end of 2009 season. The business environment in the meantime has dramatically deteriorated in the context of global economic turmoil since this fall, triggered by the financial crisis in the United States. The resulting widespread economic downturn has affected the automotive industry globally. These extreme circumstances required a decisive action and a change in our plan, which led to the withdrawal from WRC at the end of 2008 season, one year earlier than our original consideration.
Source: Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.
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