In-depth reviews

Subaru Forester hybrid MPG & CO2 emissions

You’d expect better efficiency, despite the Subaru Forester e-Boxer hybrid's size and off-road credentials

Overall rating

3.0 out of 5

MPG & CO2 emissions rating

2.0 out of 5

Price
£37,895 - £40,895
Fuel Type:
Hybrid Petrol
Fuel economy (combined)Fuel economy (high)Fuel economy (low)CO2 emissions
35mpg42mpg32mpg185g/km

This is where the Forester e-Boxer's full-hybrid powertrain should shine, but unfortunately it barely gleams. Although you’d never expect excellent fuel economy from a sizeable 4x4 like this, we’d still anticipated better than the circa-33mpg we achieved in a mix of motorway and urban driving.

Subaru Forester hybrid MPG

The Forester’s official fuel-economy figure of just under 35mpg isn’t far off what it returns in real-world driving, and if you’re more interested in whether you can get a sheep in the boot than the fuel economy, you may be fine with that, Still, this hybrid powertrain is Subaru’s attempt at making the Forester more efficient, but it hasn’t been terribly successful.

Subaru maintains that the Forester can drive in pure-electric mode at up to 25mph, but there’s no setting that forces it to use battery power only, and we struggled to do more than brief moments around town in electric mode. As such, we managed some 33mpg in a mix of motorway and town driving, while a bit of off-roading saw that drop quickly to under 30mpg.

CO2 emissions

The Forester hybrid's CO2 emissions of 185g/km are just as underwhelming as its fuel economy, given that the Toyota RAV4 (which uses a similar "self-charging" hybrid system) emits between 126 and 131g/km.

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