Had a chat with my dealer (car went in for scheduled maintenance). He told me that new 'vorg isn't gonna me available in european union, for tax reason. The supposed pollution numbers are so that importers/dealers would have to pay a shitton of money to be allowed to sell the car in EU. And buyers would still have to pay crazy taxes to be able to register the car under their name (FWIW, my levorg cost me ~2500€ for registration. luckily yearly tax is more decent).
I so much wanted that new levorg with 1.8 and 6MT :/
Can't say that I'm too surprised at that info from your dealer, mine goes in for its service and MOT next week. I don't think that the manager will tell me that though. He'll probably try to convince me to buy the current 2.0 litre version. For which the answer is a resounding No!
However, here is a quote from a Subaru official for the UK :
Speaking to Autocar, Subaru’s European general manager for sales and marketing, David Dello Stritto, said: “We have a new direction for the brand in Europe. To be honest, we’ve been resting on our rallying reputation for too long. We are in the process of bringing the product to Europe that will allow us to stay in Europe.
"We believe that we’re nicely placed to weather the storm of upcoming emissions legislation. At Subaru, being carbon-neutral is not merely a goal, it’s a result. It’s not an ambition; it simply makes good business sense.”
Subaru’s global plan includes a 20,000-tonne-per-year reduction in its total CO2 emissions, leading to a 90% reduction in corporate CO2 by 2050. In the meantime, the company will attempt to drive down its cars' emissions too; it's currently working on a jointly produced battery-electric crossover with Toyota.
Dello Stritto says that more attention needs to be paid to total lifetime CO2 emissions, including production, rather than just focusing on the emissions of the car when it's in motion.
I was worried that Subaru would pull out of the UK, David Dello Stritto, says that there's no intention (for now, at least). So the 1.8 most likely won't be coming to Europe, but the 1.5 litre may, and it will possibly be the hybrid version, to keep the emissions footprint low of course. As already there's now a hybrid version of the Forester, Impreza and XV.
However Nicodache, we won't be getting tarmac tearing performance with these enhancements. My wife's Renault Captur 1.2 out performs all of the above hybrid models! (sic)