MANILA: Subaru recently revealed that it wants to sell electrified vehicles only by mid-2030 and now it has launched the XV e-Boxer in the UK. Well, that was a quick step towards its future goal, wasn’t it?

As the name suggests, the 2020 Subaru XV e-Boxer Hybrid is a hybrid variant of Subaru’s popular compact crossover, the Subaru XV. It is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol-powered boxer engine coupled with an electric motor that can be used alone to drive the car up to a speed of 40 km/h. The XV e-Boxer Hybrid also gets Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive.

Aesthetically, the Subaru Hybrid variant is very similar to the petrol-powered variants. However, some new elements help to differentiate. These changes include custom grille design with active shutter, low-profile roof rails, new fog lamp bezel, gloss black rear spoiler endplate, and e-Boxer badging on the wings and tailgate.

On the inside, the cabin of the XV e-Boxer Hybrid is quite familiar to that of other XV variants. Features like Keyless Entry and Push Button Start System, privacy glass on the rear windows, dual-zone air-conditioning, reversing camera, leather seats, 8-way power-adjustable driver seat, satellite navigation, sunroof, 8-inch multifunction colour touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, DAB radio and Bluetooth connectivity are present here as well.

The e-Boxer specs sheet also gets numerous high-end safety features such as Pre-Collision Throttle Management, Pre-Collision Braking, Lane Sway and Departure Warning, Lane Keep Assist, Lead Vehicle Start Alert, Adaptive Cruise Control, Rear Vehicle Detection, Blind Spot Monitoring, Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert.

Right now in the Philippines, we have two variants of the Subaru XV - 2.0I and 2.0I-S Eyesight - that retails at PHP 1.42 million and PHP 1.67 million respectively. Let’s see when Subaru brings the XV e-Boxer Hybrid in the country as it would be an interesting sight because people here are still very sceptical about hybrid cars.

Also Read: Subaru XV gets upgrades and new variants for 2020