SUBARU CROSSTREK

A NEW NAME PRONOUNCES THIS AN ALTOGETHER BETTER XV

- TIM ROBSON

HERE'S SOMETHING you probably didn't know; Subaru's smallest SUV, formerly known as the XV and reborn as the Crosstrek for 2023 and beyond, is a uniquely Australian construct that was so well received, it was exported to the rest of the Subaru world. Neat, eh?

"It was a Nick Senior initiative," Subaru Australia's managing director Blair Read tells Wheels at the launch of the Crosstrek. "The project at the time was named XV, and the name stuck."

Senior, of course, is a former managing director of Subaru, and the product plan to increase the ride height of the third-generation Impreza hatch and adorn it with now-industry ubiquitous black plastic over-fenders resonated so well with HQ, the XV soon after became a part of the global line-up.

After logging some 108,000 Australian sales since its launch in 2010, the XV moniker has been benched for 2023, in favour of the US-created Crosstrek badge. So while the name may have changed, there are a lot of commonalities between the MY22 XV and MY23 Crosstrek. Those overfender plastics have been sharpened up, the front end is more aggressive with narrower LED headlamps and the rear bumper wears more aggressive trims, while the interior has scored the same vertical tablet centre console screen as the Forester and the Outback.

It’s a case of carryover for the powertrains, with the Crosstrek once again running Subaru’s 115kW/196Nm FB20 2.0-litre four-cylinder boxer engine, backed by a continuously variable transmission and bolted to an updated version of Subaru’s all-wheeldrive layout.

The mildest of mild hybrid systems remains in the line-up as an option, as well, with Read telling Wheels that advancements in the evolution of the hybrid system are coming.” Our guess is that the Crosstrek won’t benefit from it until the fourth generation drops.