The Subaru Stella is a 5-door

kei car Kei car (or , kanji: , "light automobile", ), known variously outside Japan as Japanese city car or Japanese microcar, is the Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars with restricted dimensions and engine capaci ...

produced by Subaru starting in June 2006. The Stella is based on the same architecture as the Subaru R2. It can be considered as a direct replacement of the Subaru Pleo, although the Pleo soldiered on for another four years. It was Subaru's re-entry into the market segment dominated by the

Suzuki Wagon R The is a kei car manufactured and marketed by Suzuki since 1993. The R in the name stands for Revolution and Relaxation. The Wagon R uses a "tall wagon" configuration to maximize cabin space within kei car dimensional restrictions. The Wagon ...

and the Daihatsu Move, hoping to recapture market share after the R2's lower-than-expected sales. The Stella's dimensions are more parking structure-friendly where vehicle stacking is utilized over the Pleo. The most recent generation Stella is a rebadged Daihatsu Move. The name ''Stella'' is Italian for "star", a reference to the Subaru logo.

Electric version

In June 2008, Subaru unveiled a

concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by s ...

version on an

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described b ...

vehicle by combining the Stella platform with the electric drive from the

Subaru R1e The Subaru R1e was a battery-electric microcar produced by Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), first shown at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show. The concept was jointly developed to prototype form with Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the giant Japanese utility com ...

, which uses

TEPCO , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisai ...

lithium-ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also see ...

batteries. It was showcased at the G8 Summit on 7 July 2008. Fuji announced in June 2009 that it planned to sell 170 units through March 2010, primarily to fleet and government users in Japan, with deliveries beginning in late July. It was also intended to be sold in the European Union starting September 2010, but never was.

Successor

Due to the 2008 investment of Toyota, the Stella was replaced by a rebadged Daihatsu (a Toyota subsidiary). Subaru immediately started selling one rebadged Toyota, the Subaru Dex, but kept making the Stella and some other kei products for a few years longer than initially planned. The second-generation Stella (model code LA100) was introduced in Japan on 11 May 2011 and is a rebadged Daihatsu Move. File:Subaru Stella L Limited Smart Assist 0235.JPG, Stella (second generation) File:Subaru STELLA CUSTOM RS Smart Assist (DBA-LA150F) front.jpg, Stella (third generation)

References

Kei cars

Stella Stella or STELLA may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Comedy *Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain Characters *Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...

Vehicles with CVT transmission Cars introduced in 2006 {{Modern-auto-stub