2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid First Look: Giving the People What They Want

• The 2025 Subaru Forester lineup gains a hybrid model.
• With more power and better fuel efficiency, the Forester Hybrid should be a very appealing option for customers.
• Unlike most other hybrid SUVs, the Forester uses a traditional all-wheel-drive system, giving it better capability in low-traction scenarios.

The Forester Hybrid will use the company’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, making 162 horsepower on its own. Helping it out is an electric motor powered by a 1.1-kWh battery pack, bringing total output to 194 hp. That’s an extra 14 hp over the standard Forester, which has 180 hp. However, the bigger payoff, obviously, is the added fuel efficiency. The Forester Hybrid is rated by the EPA at 35 mpg city, 34 mpg highway and 35 mpg combined. These figures represent a pretty big improvement over the gas-only version’s 26 mpg city, 33 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined.

Not only are the extra power and fuel economy nice touches, but Subaru also made sure not to compromise the Forester Hybrid’s capability. Most hybrid SUVs use what’s called electric all-wheel drive, which means that there is no mechanical connection between the front and rear axles. Subaru decided to go a different route, keeping its infamous Symmetrical AWD system in place. Here, there is power flowing to all four wheels at any moment, offering better traction when you need it. This should come in handy on a trail or in a nasty winter storm.

You'll be hard-pressed to tell the Forester Hybrid apart from its standard sibling if it weren’t for the series of hybrid badges all over the exterior. Among its many rivals, the Forester’s design is neither incredible nor lackluster — it just kind of blends in with the pack. The new 2026 Forester Wilderness fixes that problem, but unfortunately, the hybrid powertrain is not available there.

Inside, the Forester Hybrid offers much of the same equipment that we’ve reviewed in the gas-only version. That includes an 11.6-inch touchscreen that comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s not our favorite by any means; we found it to have slow response times and strange graphics. Subaru did add some new hardware, like the 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster that we look forward to spending time with.

We'll be spending more time with the Forester Hybrid soon, before it goes on sale later this year. We'll reserve full judgment until then, but based on our first look, the Forester Hybrid has all the right pieces to be a success. More power and more efficiency are exactly what the doctor ordered with this SUV.