It’s December, Christmas and New Year are around the corner, and 2025 is this close to being wrapped up. Part of the yearly wrap-up is Japan deciding which car deserves the Car of the Year (JCOTY) title. This year, the award goes to the Subaru Forester Hybrid.
Every year, Japan decides which new car is worthy of the JCOTY award, with the Mazda Familia being the first to receive the prize in the inaugural year of 1980. Toyota and Honda are the two brands with the most JCOTY wins in the land of the rising sun.
Despite that, Subaru has its fair share of wins under its belt, from the maiden win for 2003-2004 with the Legacy, to following wins for 2016–2017 with the Impreza and 2020–2021 with the Levorg. Now? The Ebisu outfit enjoys another win for 2025-2026 with the Forester Hybrid, better known both in Japan and here in the Philippines as the e-Boxer Hybrid.
But this year wasn’t necessarily a breeze, as other nominees included the latest-generation Prelude – Honda’s latest hybrid coupe that has, thankfully, reached the Philippines last week. Other contenders for the title include the Toyota Crown Signia, the latest Nissan LEAF, and the VW ID. Buzz to round out the top five.
Despite the stiff competition, key aspects that won the judges over include its practicality, efficiency, and safety, all thanks to some of the e-Boxer’s more advanced features that gave it the edge over the competition, with the awards body saying (translated from Japanese):
“The Subaru Forester was highly praised as an SUV that combines driving performance, practicality, comfort, off-road capability, and safety, which Subaru has always placed a high priority on. With the adoption of the long-awaited Strong Hybrid (S:HEV), the unique horizontally opposed engine has evolved into a ‘SUBARU-esque environmental engine’ that combines fuel efficiency with driving pleasure. Furthermore, the car also received high praise for its advanced safety features, including EyeSight X and other advanced driver assistance technologies, as well as airbags that help reduce injuries to pedestrians and cyclists alike.”
This latest win for Subaru goes to show how forward-thinking the six stars can be, from contributions to driver safety with EyeSight, to expanding ways of making mobility more sustainable by pairing the S:HEV system with that signature Boxer engine that we know and love, adding that special, quirky flavor that we know and love from the blue-clad brand.
