Subaru’s $64.5M retool: Hybrid Forester in, Legacy and Outback out

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(Photo: SIA)

Subaru’s plans to spend $64.5 million to retool lines to make gas and hybrid versions of the compact SUV Forester in Lafayette will mean the end for the brand’s Legacy and Outback models at the plant along Indiana 38, a company official said Thursday.

The Legacy, a sedan line being phased out by Subaru at the end of the 2025 model year, was the first Subaru vehicle to roll out of the Lafayette plant when it opened in 1989. Production of the Outback, originally derived from the Legacy and built on the same platform, will move to one of Subaru’s plants in Japan, Rachel Hazaray, vice president and general counsel at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, said.

“A time of bittersweet for us,” Hazaray said Thursday, after the Lafayette Redevelopment Commission gave an initial recommendation for 10-year tax abatements on $64.5 million in real estate and equipment investments at the Lafayette plant.