Subaru USA moved 23.5 per cent fewer vehicles last month than in the same month a year earlier, and the slide was broad enough that the Solterra was the only model that moved higher, with sales of 1,736 vehicles. The company’s division sales were down 14.9 per cent in the first three months of 2026.
That left Subaru facing a weak start to the year in its biggest market even as the electric Solterra found some traction. The numbers matter now because they show a downturn that is not limited to one badge or one quarter, but is showing up across the lineup as 2026 gets underway.
Subaru Canada says the picture north of the border is being distorted by a different problem: a move away from importing American-made vehicles in favour of Japanese vehicles. In the words of Sébastien Lajoie, that shift is the most significant reason Subaru Canada’s sales are suffering, because it required major changes at the company’s Japanese manufacturing site and created teething troubles that slowed the output of new vehicles.
Lajoie said the plant is working through those issues quickly and that output is accelerating, with more Outbacks expected to reach Canadian dealerships soon. He also said demand for the next-generation model remains as strong as it has ever been. That is an important counterpoint to the hard sales data, because critics have pointed to the recent radical redesign of models like the new Outback as a reason for slowing sales, while Subaru itself has acknowledged that the updated Outback is polarizing.
The friction between those explanations is now the real story. Subaru Canada is arguing that the production change, not the redesign alone, is weighing on deliveries, and the company’s near-term test will be whether the promised increase in output turns into vehicles on dealer lots fast enough to soften the decline.
