Electric vehicles (EV) are all the rage these days. From the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E to the Hyundai IONIQ Electric, the EV market is definitely gaining traction in the U.S. That’s certainly good news, but there is some bad news to be had, particularly when it comes to Subaru. Just this week, Subaru announced that it would be unveiling a fully electric vehicle in Europe. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it will be made available in the U.S.

Subaru says it’s launching an all-electric model in Europe

Exact dates have yet to be confirmed, but Subaru has announced that it has plans to launch an all-electric model in Europe sometime in the first half of the 2020s. Additional details are minimal, but the automaker has explained that this all-electric model will be a mid-size SUV. Buyers can expect it to be similar in size to the Subaru Forester. According to Subaru, this all-new model will be built on a platform shared with Toyota.

This news shouldn’t come as a surprise, however. Toyota owns a 20% stake in the company, and just last year, the two automakers announced that they would join forces to develop an EV similar in size to the Toyota RAV4 or the Subaru Forester. The two automakers have also worked together on vehicles like the Subaru BRZ and the Toyota 86.

This isn’t the only Subaru EV U.S. car shoppers are missing out on

As it turns out, Europe is stock full of Subaru EVs. In fact, according to the automaker, EV models like the Impreza e-BOXER, XV e-BOXER, and the Forester e-BOXER represent 60% of the company’s sales volume in Europe. 

But why is it that Subaru doesn’t offer more EVs to its U.S. customer base? Well, according to Consumer Affairs, Subaru CEO Tomomi Nakamura once “declared that American consumers aren’t very interested in buying an electric vehicle, with the exception of a Tesla.” Nakamura says that because of that, it’s pretty difficult to market an electric car to American consumers. Nakamura might not be that off-base either. Consumer Affairs reports that in 2018, the automaker sold an average of just 300 cars a month after introducing a plug-in hybrid of the Crosstrek.

Fortunately, there is some good news. While Nakamura might not have much confidence in a Subaru EV being offered in the U.S., the automaker does have plans to launch its first all-electric car in North America in 2022.

For now, a 2021 Crosstrek Hybrid will just have to do

If you can’t wait until 2022 for an all-electric Subaru to arrive in the U.S., you may want to check out the new Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Powered by a 2.0-liter flat-four engine that comes teamed with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and two electric motors, the automaker says that the 2021 Crosstrek Hybrid is the most efficient version of the Crosstrek so far. Per the automaker, it can deliver an EPA-rated 35 MPG/90 MPGe and 480-mile total range. Impressive, right?