Here's why Subaru customers might happily switch from flat-four ICE cars to EVs

Subaru customers know what they like and they like what they know. So you might well think they'd be unlikely to switch from their known flat-four petrols into the unknown of electric cars.

But Subaru's UK boss Lorraine Bishton explains why it could be the opposite, and that they'll be happy to make the switch when the time is right.

Which is just as well, since Subaru is adding two more electric crossovers to its lineup by the middle of next year. That's in addition to the Solterra. One is smaller and one bigger.

As with the Solterra (and GR86/BRZ sports car) they'll be joint projects with Toyota. If you're an American reader, there's yet another all-new EV too, to be built on US soil in a Toyota factory. But that's a big US supersized machine too big to sell in the UK. Subaru has published a diagram showing factory locations.

So, how will they find buyers? We don't talk much about car dealers on TopGear.com, but in this case they're central to the plot. Most of Subaru's British dealers are rural and many of them family owned, so the same people stay in the showroom for years.

Most of Subaru's cars are pretty unusual, and so the customers have every reason to come back again and again. In the process they build up longstanding relationships with those dealer staff.

"So the dealers will be a trusted source of information for them for the electric transition," says Bishton. Her hope is a Subaru dealer will sell an EV only when it really suits the buyer, a person whose driving habits they actually know.

Given the amount of fear, uncertainty and misinformation there is around electric cars, those buyers will be more reassured than if they think an anonymous salesman – or indeed a manufacturer's e-commerce site – is just trying to shove them into an EV because they have a target to meet.

Another thing about Subaru buyers is they have ready money. In Britain, more than nine out of 10 new cars are bought on some sort of credit, whereas nearly half of Subarus are cash transactions.

These sort of buyers – rural, money in the bank – sound to Top Gear exactly like the sort of people who'll have a driveway, so installing a home charge point will be no problem for them. They also trust Subaru's reliability record.

Electric is also a way for Subaru to future-proof its customer base. The average age of a Subaru buyer has been 63, yet for the Solterra EV it's just 42. Predominantly, as with all EVs, Solterra drivers are on company-car schemes, so it gives those dealers a way into that huge market.

The Solterra alone was 19 per cent of Subaru's UK sales last year. So Bishton isn't worried about the EV mandate. "The range of EVs coming our way next year means we'll get there."

The only thing that makes her worry is that little Subaru could suffer if the major players have to do desperate discounting. "If the larger brands get into distress it has ramifications across the market," she says.