Airplane manufacturer Nakajima Hikoki increased production of military airplane during the outbreak of war in Manchuria in 1931 and World War II. It soon became the largest airplane manufacturer in Japan.
With the end of World War II, Nakajima Hikoki was dissolved. Some of its former employees established Fuji Industries which began producing electrical parts and small motors.
Active in the Japanese space programme, the company’s technological expertise was used to design and build the Lunar Lander FTB (Flying Test Bed) for the Japanese Space Agency.
The company launched its first motor car in 1958, which was a mini car with a 360 engine. Subaru 360 a compact car and the production expanded rapidly after 1960.
The Subaru sold nearly 250,000 units of the 360 in its 12 years production run.
Then in May 1966, the company launched a new model, the FF-1, the first mass –produced front wheel drive vehicle in Japan. By 1968 the company was producing 100,000 vehicles annually with exports representing 73 percent of that.
The word Subaru means ‘to gather together.’ The five stars on the logo today represent the five companies uniting to form Fuji Heavy Industries.
The technological developments continued with launch of the first all-wheel drive vehicle in 1980, a design which has since been the basis for all Subaru drive systems.
History of Subaru car
